Villainous Company reports on something important, which she rightly points to as something we should hear more of:
On July 28th, the North American Fiqh Council of Islam issued a fatwah against terrorism.
This is what we have been calling for since September 11th. Although some have criticized the language, and some have said it does not go far enough, if you read it I think you will be surprised at just how much it does say. And if you think anything like the way I do, you may well be angry. You may well wonder why the text of this fatwa is not front-page news all over America:
The Fiqh Council of North America wishes to reaffirm Islam’s absolute condemnation of terrorism and religious extremism.
….. The American Jewish Congress responded cautiously, but I think, correctly to news of the fatwa:
Obviously any sincere condemnation of all forms of terrorism by bona fide religious leaders of the Muslim community would be a welcome development. So, we would like to be able to applaud the statement of the Fiqh Council without reservation. What troubles us, and leads to hesitancy, are reports that some of those involved in the issuance of the Fiqh Council statement have been past supporters or advocates for terrorism, causing skepticism over whether their statement can be taken at face value. On the other hand, because radicals play so dominant a role in the leadership of the Muslim community, if we insist in accepting only statements issued by those people with perfectly clean hands, there may be no one who holds a position of acknowledged leadership capable of issuing a statement that will be taken seriously by other Muslims.
Past statements by moderate Muslims condemning terrorism suffered from the deficiency that they had little impact, while statements by more-radical Muslims until now were ambiguous about whether acts of terrorism against Israel and Israelis were included in the condemnation. Ironically, because the current unequivocal statement comes from those with radical credentials it is likely to have far greater impact than past pronouncements in putting an end to the acceptability of terror. Essentially, “only Nixon can go to China.”
Cassandra has quite a bit to say, it would be a shame if you missed it.