Fatwa on Bin Laden

This came as Spain’s main Islamic body issued a fatwa against Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whose ghostly organization claimed the Madrid bombings exactly one year ago.

The five-page fatwa declared Thursday, March10, that “the terrorist acts” of Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden “are totally forbidden and the object of strong condemnation by Islam,” according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The fatwa was issued by the Islamic commission of Spain, created by the government in 1991 to be the representative of the country’s Muslim minority.

The fatwa said Bin Laden is “outside Islam”, adding that he, Al-Qaeda and all those “who try to justify terrorism by basing it on the Noble Qur’an are outside Islam.”

The fatwa is believed to represent the first major condemnation of bin Laden by a mainstream Muslim organization.

Given the group’s support for “the legality of terrorism," Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda “must not be considered Muslims nor treated as such,” the fatwa read.

It furthermore called for everyone to avoid deploying the term “Islam or Islamist to refer to these miscreants.”

Most Muslim scholars and population have denounced the explosions of Madrid blasts, which left 191 people, and the September 11 attacks two years earlier –- also blamed on Al-Qaeda.

But they stopped short of deeming Bin Laden apostate or outside Islam.

“Jurists unanimously view that apostasy consists of denying the message (or any of the teachings) of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And that committing sins, however grave they may be, cannot result in apostasy,” according to Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, the deputy chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research in an earlier fatwa to IslamOnline.net.

Although many Muslim scholars shared condemnation of Bin Laden, they have never issued a fatwa calling him a terrorist or apostate.

Ali Jum’ah, Egypt’s mufti and a professor of Islamic jurisprudence, said in an earlier fatwa, that to say Bin laden is a terrorist is a personal judgment.

“It is better that such matter be left for an impartial judiciary to decide, by probing into evidence and addressing related issues that will help it reach final decisions, instead of playing tricks with people’s minds and avoid dealing with the issue extensively,” he said.

While Imam Ahmad, a Muslim scholar who created a school in Islam, said “Command, prohibition, reward, punishment, and judging someone as kafir (apostate) or wrongdoer are absolutely restricted to Allah and His messenger and none besides them.”