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An American Fatwa Against Terrorism Falls Short

(New Republic) Judea Pearl - In the wake of the bombings in London, America's Muslim community recognized the necessity for a formal religious response to growing extremism. The result was a "fatwa," or Muslim legal pronouncement, issued by the Fiqh Council of North America and endorsed by 140 Muslim groups, leaders, and institutions. Unfortunately, while the words contained in the fatwa are encouraging, a close reading of the American fatwa shows that it falls short of a comprehensive denunciation of terror. The American fatwa condemns only the physical perpetrators of terrorist acts and their collaborators, not the preachers and ideologues who legitimize or encourage those acts. Are not those religious figures who encourage suicide bombers at least as guilty as those who strap themselves with explosives? The American fatwa appears to be the work of a weak-willed leadership that hesitates to directly confront the ideological basis of al-Qaeda.
2005-09-16 00:00:00
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