After giving Islam the blackest of eyes, I have yet to see any Muslim cleric or council issue a fatwa seeking the death of bin Laden. If anybody is aware of this please post a link. I have seen nothing of the sort in any news, anywhere. As so many Arab Muslims proclaim unwarranted persecution subsequent to the 9-11 atrocity I remain amazed at a profound dichotomy in a lot of their rhetoric.
It has been claimed by some Muslim anti-American elements that the 9-11 atrocities were actually implemented by the United States or Jewish subversives, seeking some pretext for a purge of Islam’s followers. Yet, in the same breath many of these same people also say, “America had it coming…” One cannot have it both ways. Was this a non-Arab conspiracy or terrorist atrocity?
Such sanctimonious attempts to make both claims at once perfectly expose the hypocrisy and overarching malignancy of such mentalities. Osama bin Laden’s evil acts have so tainted the global perception of Islam that one would think several fatwas would have been issued already. A death fatwa, like that decreed against Salman Rushdie, would be one of the few concrete actions to persuade world opinion that bin Laden acted against all Islamic principles.
It is impossible not to believe that many fundamentalist Muslim clerics and practitioners maintain the dichotomous precepts mentioned above. The complete absence of any Islamic death warrant against bin Laden stands as stark testimony to the undercurrent of retribution sought by these fanatics. The deafening silence of so many Muslims concerning the apprehension and trial of bin Laden for his crimes utterly contradicts their cries of unwarranted persecution.
Mostly the fatwas issued don’t target ObL for death, but merely condemns the terrorist attacks, as with this one:
“The terrorist acts…considered by Islamic law…[constitute] the crime of ‘hirabah’ (waging war against society),” read a fatwa, or Islamic legal opinion, issued by six Islamic scholars in the Middle East and North America on September 27.
The scholars were Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi (Grand Islamic Scholar and Chairman of the Sunna and Sira Council, Qatar), Judge Tariq al-Bishri (First Deputy President of the Council d’etat, Egypt), Dr. Muhammad S. al-Awa (Professor of Comparative Law and Shari’a, Egypt), Dr. Haytham al-Khayyat (Islamic Scholar, Syria), Fahmi Houaydi (Islamic Scholar, Egypt), and Sheikh Taha Jabir al-Alawani (Chairman, North America High Council).*
The problem, as with all fatwas, is that there is no universality to them ( even there it is always claimed that there is by the folks issuing them ) and damn near anyone who claims any “clerical” standing can issue one. Doesn’t mean it is “valid” ( itself a rather nebulous concept ). But it happens all the time, sometimes not even by the folks that have even the minimal authority required to do so, as with that Nigerian official recently or bin Laden himself.
I think a lot of the hesitation to target ObL specifically springs from two issues:
More moderate and responsible clerics tend to be a lot more cautious about ordering “murder fatwas”. To do so, would be to put themselves on the same level as ObL. In addition though ObL is indisuptedly guilty as far as I’m concerned, he has carefully set up just enough bullshit plausible deniability that moderates would be far more inclined to bring him to trial, rather than just condemn him to death outright. And…
More troubling and feeding in part into number one, there is a pervasive paranoia in much of the ME in particular that makes simply targetting ObL problematic - i.e., authorities, religious and otherwise, have invested so much in opposing so-called U.S. imperialism and doubting whatever comes out of the west, that condeming ObL without a trial of some sort would likely be seen as “caving in” and could have all sorts of repercussions.
For the same reason we never saw calls for lynchings of KKK members by mainstream white churches during the Civil Rights era. Those who produce exhortations to violence are invariably from hateful, violence-prone extremes of an ideological spectrum.
However, there is ample evidence of the Muslim Middle’s denunciation and condemnation of OBL, as referenced in the posts above.
Thanks for all of the links. It is heartening to know that there have, indeed, been numerous voices raised against such criminality. I was aware of some, but not all of them.
I still find it rather odd that minor players like Salman Rushdie and Hashem Aghajari receive death fatwas for mere blasphemy, while a mass murderer like bin Laden remains relatively unscathed. I am well aware that the two death fatwas mentioned above are from the same sort of hardline untra-conservative clerics who vocally support bin Laden. I remain unable to escape the perception of tacit approval by too many who should be intensely and vociferously outraged at the near-permanent damage done by bin Laden.
Tamerlane’s point about moderates seeking to avoid precisely the same carte blanche mentality as the hard-line clerics is excellent. I can only wonder that such Islamic fundamentalists are so willing to accept the marginalization of their faith through being tainted by such an atrocity, yet remain adamant about there being a “crusade” against the Muslim faith. It seems as though they intentionally desire the persecution of all Muslims. They are preaching out of both sides of their mouths in such a way as to neuter any validity of their stance.