Posted on 07/19/2005 2:09:51 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
Imams from about 500 British mosques have issued a fatwa condemning violence, which they have presented to politicians at Westminster, as ministers cast around for new laws to help stop a repeat of attacks on London.
The fatwa will be read out at mosques during prayers this Friday.
Officials say the government is looking to target extremists, particularly Islamic clerics, who glorify or encourage terrorist acts.
Such figures could be banned from entering Britain or deported if they are already in the country.
Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet British Muslim community leaders today to find ways of tackling the root causes of terrorism and preventing the message of extremists resonating.
"We all have to recognise where this perversion of Islam comes from,'' Blair's spokesman said. "We all have to stand together and deal with it. That includes the Muslim community.''
The government also wants to outlaw "acts preparatory to terrorism'', such as giving or receiving training for attacks.
Interior Minister Charles Clarke said he and his opposite numbers had agreed to publish legislation in October with a view to passing it into law by the year-end.
"We will cooperate with the government to ensure that the legislation . . . does the job it is set out to do and it is put on the Statute Book as quickly as possible,'' opposition Conservative home affairs spokesman David Davis told reporters.
Australia a 'bigger target'
Terrorists had Australia firmly in their sights long before 2003, but involvement in the Iraq conflict made it a much bigger target, Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd has said.
Mr Rudd said that assessment had been reinforced by a Royal Institute of International Affairs report released in Britain which said the invasion of Iraq and ongoing occupation by allied troops had been a boon for al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda is suspected of being behind the July 7 London bombings, in which claimed 56 people died - including Melbourne man Sam Ly - and more than 700 were injured.
"Prior to the Iraq war there were factors which of course made Australia a terrorist target, that we were first and foremost a perceived western and Christian country, second that we had participated in the invasion of Afghanistan,'' Mr Rudd told ABC radio.
"But the third factor which turbocharged Australia as being a terrorist target by al-Qaeda and the al-Qaeda network has been our invasion of Iraq and participation in the coalition of the willing military operation.''
Al-Qaeda is suspected of being behind the July 7 London bombings, in which claimed 56 people died - including Melbourne man Sam Ly - and injured more than 700.
In Washington, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld challenged any notion that a country could be made safer from terror by avoiding confrontation.
"No country can allow its foreign and defence policy to be malleable in the hands of terrorists," Mr Howard said.
'Pillion passenger'
The Blair government has angrily rejected the RIIA report, which says Britain created its own problems by playing "pillion passenger'' to Washington.
"The UK is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the United States,'' said security experts Frank Gregory and Paul Wilkinson.
That provoked a strikingly robust rebuttal from Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw.
"The time for excuses for terrorism is over. The terrorists have struck across the world, in countries allied with the United States, backing the war in Iraq, and in countries which had nothing whatever to do with the war in Iraq,'' he said.
The ink on the fatwa is not yet dry and a terrorist cleric, that will be visiting the UK, is being called a "moderate".
So much for the fatwa.
Despite their big talk the British Government will not ban him because they are full of hot air.
Will Radical Cleric Be Allowed into UK under new anti-terror regime? Daily Telegraph asks
Carter's fault! ;-)
He should have killed Khomeini and his thugs!
"And Canada!"
I have been doing a lot of whoops of latetly. Forgot, but they where not on the list shown the other day. Then again, perhaps my eyes deceived me.
This is something that was stunningly absent after 9/11.
I dont want to see any one get hurt any where but such attacks in France, Germany and Canada may help them wake up!
That and $2 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. Big Deal.
Your parody fatwa IS very much in the spirit of the initial British Muslim Council denunciation, which focused only on the possible 'backlash' against Muslims, and the CAIR 'denunciations' which have the same flavor of tactical objection without actual condemnation of murder.
I hope the actual text is more forthcoming and useful.
So what's the situation? Dueling fatwas?
Is this a fatwa calling for the death of terrorists or is it just another toothless fatwa?
I think I know the answer.
Re: why four years? That's my thought, too. And so far, the Mohammadans here in the ol' US of A have been pretty silent...
Dated one of those in the 60s.
Rumored transcript of London fatwa:
First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin.
Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.
Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.
Amen.
LOL...we all went through tough times at least once.
"I dont want to see any one get hurt any where but such attacks in France, Germany and Canada may help them wake up!"
Sadly that what it appears to take. It would appear the French and Germans do have a pretty good terrorist watch set up, but Canada is a bit lacking based on what we often read. With the upcoming get tough moves by Britain perhaps all western democracies shall follow suit. Guess time will tell.
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