Spains Muslim Council issued a fatwa against Osama today, saying "We declare ... that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation, responsible for the horrendous crimes against innocent people who were despicably murdered in the March 11 terrorist attack in Madrid, are outside the parameters of Islam."

Good news. Would be nice to see more things like this from Islamic clerics.

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/40931.htm

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03 ... index.html

Ain't that the truth. This is the first tme that I've seen anyone from the Muslim community publicly decry bin Laden and Al Queda. Its about freaking time. I'd like to know what has taken them so long to do this.

Many non fundementalists did after 9-11.

In public? On National TV? In front of the entire USA and World??? Not that I remember, I could be wrong, but I just don't remember hearing it.

http://islam.about.com/cs/currentevents/a/9_11statements.htm



The radicals didn't denounce the attacks, in fact, one cleric has written a fatwa given bin Laden permission to use a nuclear weapon against the United States. But you can't taint an entire religion because of the actions of the radicals who call themselves followers, although there are many who fall into that category compared to other religions. True, Isalm seems to lend itself to radical fundementalism and destruction, but the few Muslims that I have met considered bin Laden and his followers to be using their religon to attain personal profit, and not being true to what the Koran said. It would be comparable to think that the Catholic Church was evil because of the sexual abuse scandal or to not give protetants a chance because people like the KKK call themselves protestant.

Just my rant on things, sorry it went long .

Well...there is some splaining to do from the Catholic church IMO. They are the ones that moved people instead of REmoving them when accused. That borders on evil...not that the Pope was doing it but many parts of the organization hid the problem knowingly and put others in harms way by inaction and cover ups.

/rant

In any organization of people, you will have left wing and right wing groups. It was no different in the middle ages and remains so today. Whether those groups are religious, political, business or judicial in nature, there will be different view points and approaches to common subjects. Islam, Catholicism, the United Nations, and any other group cannot be fully represented by a select handful of people.
Were that the case, then every member of the NRA is a government hating civilian militia activist. I happen to know that's not the case.
I also happen to be Catholic and abhor the actions of the heirarchy of the church. But I don't feel that they accurately represent what is best about religion, no more than the Islamics who believe that peace is the overriding nature of their religion rather than fanaticism.