The observatory at Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta responsible for monitoring infidelizing fatwas issued its 15th report entitled “Suicide Attacks: The Craft of Delusions”. This came after QSIS broadcasted a video showing a young Egyptian, Abu Mus’ab Al-Muhagir, claiming responsibility for the suicide attack that targeted what in their words they described as ‘apostates’ in the city of Benghazi.

The report reviewed the suicide attacks carried out by radical groups under various designations and false pretexts, refuting the fatwas and ascriptions used by these extremists to justify their criminal acts. It moreover examined the motives and grounds for their operations, especially those inspired by religious, psychological and social motives and mentioned the groups targeted for future attacks. The report confirmed that the Islamic state was established on the foundations of security and societal stability and that because production and progress are contingent on security, a society cannot exist without it. It explained that Islam combats all forms of destruction, terrorization of civilians and corruption.

The report warned against what it called “a wave of suicide attacks” targeting the Arab and Islamic region with the aim of putting into effect the plans of infidelizing organizations and groups and fulfilling their aims. These terrorists mislead reckless youth into executing bombing operations against Muslim and non-Muslim civilians alike and intensively work to promote misleading fatwas which justify killing. They take pride in suicide attacks, describing them as altruistic and legally sanctioned martyrdom for the sake of Allah. In an attempt to attract new volunteers, they elevate the perpetrators of terrorist attacks to immortality.

The report revealed several approaches which they use to recruit suicide bombers; these include religion, portraying suicide attacks as the highest degree of martyrdom, propagating fatwas reinforcing this meaning and brainwashing their followers and inculcating in them notions of hatred for and the obligation to fight against the other. They further try to exploit those who seek to repent and desist from sin by persuading them that such operations serve to guarantee for them true repentance, atonement from their sins and paradise.

With the aim of combating this malignant scourge, the report examines the psychological causes that lead people to commit such attacks, mainly feelings of frustration; despair of achieving personal and life ambitions, especially in the youth; and a desire to join and identify with a group.

According to the report, several studies show that 10% of all suicide attacks are carried out by women. Female cells formed by these extremist groups are entrusted with the tasks of standing at check points and observing and monitoring targeted sites in addition to fighting and carrying out bombing operations.

The report also showed that the greatest percentage of the victims of such terrorist attacks worldwide are Muslim residents of Islamic countries while Western foreigners represent the minority percentage.
It likewise showed that the majority of extremist groups invoke the fiqh principle of tatarus, using human shields, to justify the killing of innocents during bombing operations and give erroneous interpretations of scholarly opinions to their followers. To lend religious legitimacy to their criminal actions, they claim that the innocent victims of such operations are martyrs who will enter paradise. Some of them even go as far as to maintain that any Muslim who impedes their battle with the West or with any other hostile regime is an apostate and consequently, a legitimate target.

The report refutes the opinions of infidelizing radical groups and confirms that they resort to invalid substantiations and erroneous analogies. It likewise confirms that their terrorist actions constitute an illegitimate targeting of civilians which kills men, women and children which is totally aberrant from the merciful teachings of Islam both in letter and spirit.