05 June 2017
Director of the University of South Australia’s Centre for Islamic Thought and Education, Professor Mohamad Abdalla says the cold-blooded murder of seven people and the injuring of many more in London on June 3 2017 is horrendous, unspeakable and inhuman.
“This is a crime against humanity - it cannot be justified and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” Prof Abdalla says.
“We feel deeply for the families of the victims and offer them our heartfelt condolences.
“We stand with them, and pray for their strength in these difficult times.”
Prof Abdalla says the murder of so many innocent people by some Muslims betrays the spirit and law of the very faith they profess to follow.
Leading Muslim scholars from around the world have condemned, in the strongest terms, all acts of terrorism as prohibited and condemnable.
In December 2015, more than 70,000 Indian Muslim clerics issued a fatwa (legal opinion) against Isis and other terror groups saying they were "not Islamic organisations".
“The Australian National Imams’ Consultative Committee and the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies (NCEIS) collated fatwas of prominent scholars and authoritative organisations on the prohibition of terrorism and the killing of any innocent people,” Prof Abdalla says.
“Actions such as the London killing can only be seen as callous homicide, but we must not allow it to divide us.
“We must break the cycle of hate, condemn it, and not fall into extremists’ agendas that seek to divide our nations on religious and sectarian rhetoric,” Prof Abdalla says.
More information about the Centre and its goals is available here.
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli mobile 0418 823 673
Contact for interviews: Professor Mohamad Abdalla Mohamad.abdalla@unisa.edu.au (08) 83024910
