Moderating Islam

Britain's largest Sunni Muslim group yesterday brought the full weight of Islamic law against the perpetrators of the July 7 attacks on London's transport system, issuing a binding religious fatwa against suicide terror.

Calling the bombings the work of a "perverted ideology," the Sunni Council declared such actions forbidden by the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book.

"Who has given anyone the right to kill others? It is a sin. Anyone who commits suicide will be sent to Hell," Mufti Muhammed Gul Rehman Qadri, the council chairman, told Associated Press.

"What happened in London can be seen as a sacrilege. It is a sin to take your life or the life of others."

The council warned Muslims not to use "atrocities being committed in Palestine and Iraq" to justify acts that pervert Qu'ranic law. It also condemned "those who may have been behind the masterminding of these acts, those who incited these youths in order to further their own perverted ideology."
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I very much doubt this fatwa will stop al-Qaeda recruits from strapping on bombs and blowing themselves and others to the promised 72 raisins.

It does, however, provide a basis for moderate Muslims to refuse to support or remain silent about the terrorists in their midst. Which is a crucial first step.