DOHA, Qatar - A top Islamic scholar said in remarks published on Wednesday that suicide attacks by Palestinian militants on Israeli targets were legitimate under Islam.
"These kinds of operations are the greatest forms of jihad (holy struggle)," Sheikh Youssef al-Qardawi, a widely respected Egyptian cleric based in Qatar, was quoted as saying in Qatar's al-Raya newspaper.
"These are martyrdom attacks and far from being acts of suicide," he said.
The comments were part of an informal debate among Muslim scholars on whether suicide attacks, usually carried out by Palestinian Islamic militants against Israeli targets, are legitimate under Islam or not.
Islam bans suicide as a major sin condemning those committing it to hell.
Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, the kingdom's highest religious authority, ignited the debate last week.
"I know of no religious justification for...what is described as suicide attacks," the Saudi Mufti said in an interview published in the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat.
"I am afraid that they (suicide attacks) are a type of killing one self. True, fighting and weakening the enemy is necessary, but it must be done in ways that do not contradict Islam," he added.
But Sheikh Qardawi said it was permissable to use such attacks to strike fear in the heart of the enemy.
The Palestinian Islamic militant Hamas group and Islamic Jihad have championed suicide bombings against Israel to avenge the deaths of Palestinians.
More than 385 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 74 Israelis have been killed in seven months of clashes between Israelis and Palestinians.
07:38 04-25-01
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