International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 52

International Journal on Criminology
Prophet ambushed the people of Taïf, and he did the same. It is allowed to destroy
their houses and to burn them, even if there are children and women inside.”
Ibn Taymyya declared that if the killing of children and women is prohibited by
religion, it becomes permissible if there is a necessity, as in attacks with catapults.
If the people forced to stay with the unbelievers are killed, they will be sent to God
according to their intentions. Ibn Taymyya teaches us that the mujahedin cannot
distinguish between those who are forced to stay with the enemy and those who are
not.
We should note in passing that these arguments have no meaning for real
Muslim scholars. The reference remains dated at the recent period of the birth of
pseudo-reformism. There is no serious indication on the attribution of these statements
to the Prophet and his companions.
To allow terrorists to satisfy their sadism by removing all scruples; to live their
paradise on earth and to let terror reign; to dominate the population, to execrate the de
facto authority, they are given improvised fatwas. Here are a few examples:
There is no interest, no utility in slowing the promotion of virtue and the fight against
vice, or in hindering the application of the verdicts of Islam. There is only interest
in applying sanctions, in exercising intimidation, in expiation and generalization of
the commandments of Islam, in applying murder, blows, and exile to all—only God
knows what is good for people.
No matter what we do with our mind or our feelings to know what is good or what is
not, we will not be able to do it, so one must only apply them. 49
These terrorist justifications come from issues of the magazine El Djamaa, the
group, published under Zitouni in early 1996. The justifications of mass killings and
massacres of innocent children come from June–July 1996, soon before the massacres
in the suburbs of Algiers and in Ramka, in the heights of Relizane. More than 700
people died in this carnage committed with axes, knives, pickaxes, and explosive
devices. Among the victims, there were more than 80 infants killed with pickaxes
and knives. In Bentalha, Sidi Moussa, and in a hamlet of the town of Beni Messous, a
number of women and elderly persons were also killed.
These practices began under Zitouni and continued under Antar Zouabri, to a
lesser degree, due to a lack of resources as the sect had been weakened—under their
49
Same references, the El Djamaa magazine and the international colloquium, in particular the presentation
by Ahmed Zerouk, a military magistrate.
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