Iraqi Cleric: Suicide Operations Tarnish Islam

A prominent Iraqi cleric on Thursday (March 20th) slammed those who promote suicide operations and claim they are “jihad” and self-sacrifice, saying they tarnish Islam and are not in any way connected to religion.
A picture of a boy who “blew himself up in western Ramadi” in a group of people was posted to the Twitter account “Rashidun Caliphate”, which bears the black flag of al-Qaeda, on Sunday.
“Al-Qaeda’s posting of a picture of a child younger than 12 years old who was wearing an explosives vest is a criminal, heinous act unacceptable according to any belief, monotheistic religion or any ideology,” said Anbar Iftaa Council member Sheikh Nasser Khalil al-Dulaimi.
“Suicide operations carried out by al-Qaeda or the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) have no basis in major reference books or Islamic history,” al-Dulaimi told Al-Shorfa.
Such operations are double killings, he said, as they kill both the suicide bomber and innocent people making them doubly sinful.