Following are excerpts from an interview with Lebanese Sunni cleric Sheikh Maher Hamoud, which aired on NBN, a TV channel affiliated with the head of the Amal movement, Nabih Berri, on July 7, 2008. Sheikh Hamoud, imam of Al-Quds mosque in Sidon, Lebanon, has given interviews to Western journalists,[1] and has received financial support from former Australian mufti Taj Din al-Hilali.[2]
Sheikh Hamoud is the scion of a prominent Sidon family and grandson of a former mufti of the city. According to media reports, he is an ally of Hizbullah, and in the early 1980s was one of the first Sunni clerics in Lebanon to embrace the revolutionary message of the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.[3]
To view this clip, visit http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/1808.
"The Jurisprudent Constitutes a Source of Authority For The State and Its Politics – Not The Other Way Around, Like Things Are Today"
Sheikh Hamoud: "What does the concept of 'the Rule of the Jurisprudent' mean? I am talking about its general philosophy. The jurisprudent constitutes a source of authority for the state and its politics – not the other way around, like things are today. Today, most of the so-called 'ulama are merely employees who receive their orders from the politicians."
Interviewer: "Who are you referring to?"
Sheikh Hamoud: "The official 'ulama in general, who are employees working for the political authority. They say whatever is dictated to them, and none of them has the courage to cross the line delineated for him. Historically, it was the 'ulama who dictated to the politicians what is permitted and what is prohibited, and what they can or cannot do.
[...]
"It was [Osama bin Laden] who carried out [9/11]. Whether Al-Qaeda was infiltrated and whether someone persuaded him to do it – this is another matter, and history will tell. But he carried it out, and he revealed the names of the '19 knights.' Asking again and again whether or not he did it is an insult to intelligence.
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"Do I admire his personality and loyalty? Yes, I do, but as I have said more than once, that if I had been with him and he had asked for my advice or my fatwa, I would not have sanctioned any of the things he did, except for attacking the Pentagon, the CIA headquarters, and the White House."[...]
Bin Laden "Is Undoubtedly a mujahid, Not a Terrorist in the Negative Sense of the Word"
Sheikh Hamoud: "I wish I could meet with [Osama bin Laden] and discuss things. I am not saying this out of disregard for other people. I am convinced that I could persuade him of many things and channel his extraordinary energy to the right direction."
Interviewer: "So you do not consider Osama bin Laden a terrorist?"
Sheikh Hamoud: "No, he is a mujahid who has made some wrong judgment calls. He is undoubtedly a mujahid and not a terrorist in the negative sense of the word. He has a national and a popular goal..."
Interviewer: "What about his position regarding the Christians?"
Sheikh Hamoud: "Undoubtedly, this position is not right... I wrote this in [the Lebanese daily] Al-Nahar and elsewhere. He is very wrong to talk about a Zionist-Crusader enemy. This is a strategic mistake. Like I've said, there is no such thing as a crusader enemy. There is no global institute or Christian country fighting Islam. This is an illusion."[...]
"Who Can Possibly Claim That Bush Is A Christian? He Is A Zionist"
Sheikh Hamoud: "Who can possibly claim that Bush is a Christian? He is a Zionist. He is a Zionist in his ideology, his thoughts, and his commitments. The 50 million members of the new Protestant Church in America are Zionist, rather than Christian, in their ideology, priorities, and perspectives.
"It is a strategic mistake on the part of Osama to talk about Crusaders and Zionists in the same breath. This is wrong, and it is harmful to his strategy and long-term perspective. Even if, for the sake of argument, we said this was true, the Prophet Muhammad taught us to operate in stages. When he fought the polytheists, he ignored the Jews, and when he fought the Jews, he ignored the polytheists.
"If I launch a war against the entire world... If we assume that there are six million Jews in the world, and that there are 50 million people in America supporting them – those are all the Zionists in the world. But in the Christian world, there are three billion people. What reasonable man would start a war against the Christian world, most of which is not interested [in the Jews]?"
[1] Rosen, Nir. "Hizb Allah, Party of God" New America Foundation, October 3, 2006, http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2006/hizb_allah_party_of_god.
[2] Kerbaj, Richard. "How mufti gave charity to jihad radio," The Australian, April 9, 2007, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,21524914-2702,00.html.
[3] Blanford, Nicholas. "Sunnis in Lebanon could back Al-Qa'eda," The National, May 15, 2008,
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080515/FOREIGN/108615888/1011/NEWS&Profile=1011.
