Question 2: Is there something as moderate Islam in Arab world? What are the chances of that emerging and having an impact on relations with Israel?

Bernard Lewis Responds: There certainly is such a thing as moderate Islam, which is nearer to what you might call the main stream Muslim tradition. For example, in Islamic holly law, Islamic Sharia, holly war is a religious obligation. But because it is a religious obligation, its regulated by laws.

Laws of war in Sharia are very elaborate and they totally exclude almost all the devices used by terrorists at the present time. Sharia law say one must not attack or injure non-combatants, one must avoid harm to elderly to women to children and one must not use weapons of mass destruction. That may surprise you but they had some then. For example, poisoning the water sources of the city. That was a weapon of mass destruction and forbidden by sharia.

Perhaps the most significant of all, suicide of all forms is totally forbidden. Sharia is very clear about that. Anyone who commits a suicide, even if he has lived a life of virtue, will forfeit all of that and go straight to hell. We are further told the punishment of suicide is the eternal repetition of the act of suicide, which is not quite what they seem to be expecting now a day. Well, what changed?

There were these radical movements in Islam, some going back many centuries and some more recent, and among other things they brought about shall we say not a re-writing of the holly law but re-evaluation and re-interpretation of the holly law which has made things very different. As you know, lawyers are capable of achieving miracles by interpretation and the jurist of the holly law of Islam are no exemption to this.

“Radical Islam, Israel and West”

Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

YouTube, minutes 42:20 to 45:00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KePJz28_GY