Fatwa against Bin Laden

Finally, 4 years after 9/11 and 1 year after 3/11 (3/11 was the date of the Madrid train bombings), Islamic scholars have issued a fatwa against Osama Bin Laden. It is about time Muslim scholars took their own religion seriously, and chose to punish a mass murderer... even if it is just words at this point.

The ruling was issued by the Islamic Commission of Spain, the main body representing the country's 1 million-member Muslim community. The commission invited imams to condemn terrorism at Friday prayers...The fatwa said that according to the Koran "the terrorist acts of Osama bin Laden and his organization al Qaeda ... are totally banned and must be roundly condemned as part of Islam."

Of course, Spanish clerics will mean little to radical Islamics. But you have to start somewhere. And perhaps this is the first step on a path that will lead to a similar Fatwa issued in Saudi Arabia... or even Mecca and Medina, the holiest cities of the Muslim world.