Scholars: Islamic Sources Justifying Lying Might Have Been Lying

Under Taqqiyya, fraudulent claims of Israeli brutality become religiously acceptable, since the goal is a noble one.

Cairo, November 4 – Religious scholars at Egypt’s Quds Qollege have discovered that the originators of the use of the Islamic philosophy of Taqqiyya to justify lying for noble purposes may have been falsifying it, a spokesman for the institution said today.

Scholars have long been fascinated by Taqqiyya, which refers to the dispensation Muslims may have for not telling the truth in a given situation if admitting the truth has dire consequences such as death. Muslim communities and derivatives of them such as the Druze and Baha’i have often invoked Taqqiyya in efforts to avoid persecution, but more recently the use of the doctrine has expanded to explain or justify almost any lie if it serves a higher goal, such as expelling the Jews from Palestine. Thus, fraudulent claims of Israeli brutality become religiously acceptable, since the goal is a noble one.

However, researchers investigating the origins and development of Taqqiyya have discovered a wrinkle that may color the application of the doctrine: namely, that those who first advanced the interpretation that it is permissible to lie for any noble goal were likely lying. Ayama Shaqran, who has spent the last eight years studying Taqqiyya at Quds, explained that the first expansive use of Taqqiyya beyond accommodations for individual and communal survival occurred when a sweet-talking twelfth-century Arabian camel merchant convinced the father of several attractive daughters that the Prophet had appeared to him in a vision and commanded him to impregnate each of the girls in succession. The son of one of those unions became an Islamic leader of renown, and explained his father’s behavior as a legitimate instance of Taqqiyya.

Since then, the doctrine has been invoked to varying degrees. In recent times, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafar sought to persuade more radical elements not to attack the PLO for reaching an accord with Israel, saying that it was permissible to lie to the world about peaceful intentions when in fact the Oslo agreement was merely a stepping-stone on the way to liberation of all of Palestine. Even more recently, Palestinian leaders across the political spectrum have engaged in Taqqiyya by inciting their constituents to violence in Arabic while proclaiming to the rest of the world that their intentions and methods are peaceful.

Shaqran does not expect the revelation to have much of an effect. “People are going to do what they’re going to do, and justify it any way they can,” he said. “If not Taqqiyya, then some other doctrine can be invented, such as Alqilya, which involves putting to death anyone who asks uncomfortable questions.”