Another Fatwa

Prepare yourself, America.  In the wake of the Christmas bomber arrest, a major organization of Islam has issued a new Fatwa.  This is not new, of course. Hundreds of Fatwa's seem to issue from Muslim Imams each year, all bearing the same tired template of hatred and bigotry against the West, ignorance and murderous malice. It is as if they are all cranked out on some old mimeograph machine in Osama bin Laden's cave.

However .... this one IS new.  On behalf of ten million Muslims, twenty Imams affiliated with the Supreme Council of Canada have issued a bold, unambiguous Fatwa AGAINST THE TERRORISTS:

In our view, these attacks are evil and Islam requires from Muslims to stand up against this evil ... It is a duty of every Canadian and American Muslim to safeguard Canada and the USA . They must expose any person, Muslim OR non-Muslim, who would cause harm to fellow Canadians OR Americans. We, Canadian and American Muslims, must condemn and stand up against these attacks on Canada and the United States.

Most inspiring is the rationale given by these Imams:

Continue....

Therefore, it is an obligation upon us (Imams) to inform all Muslims around the world that Muslims in Canada and the United States have complete freedom to practice Islam. There is no single city in Canada and the United States where MASAJIDS (Mosques) are not built. In all major cities Islamic schools provide education to Muslim children about Qur'an and the Islamic traditions. Thousands of Muslims perform Hajj every year and travel to Saudi Arabia with complete freedom and respect.  In the month of Ramadan, both Canadian and the United States governments recognize the occasion and greet all Muslim citizens. Muslims pray five daily prayers in mosques without any fear or restrictions. Muslims have complete freedom to pay Zakat (poor due) to the charity or a person of their choice. Muslims have complete freedom to celebrate their festivals openly, publicly and Islamically.  Muslims enjoy freedom of religion just like Christians, Jews and others.  No one stops us from obeying Allah and His Messenger (Peace be upon him). No one stops us from preaching Islam and practicing Islam. In many cases, Muslims have more freedom to practice Islam here in Canada and the United States than many Muslim countries.

And catch this extraordinary affirmation of fundamental Western values:

In fact, the constitutions of the United States and Canada are very close to the Islamic guiding principles of human rights and freedom. There is no conflict between the Islamic values of freedom and justice and the Canadian /US values of freedom and justice.

This is an historic document. For more than eight years, the defense of Islam in the face of cowardly acts of murder by Muslims has been largely made by Western Christians, Jews, and others, who in doing so were defending the very values of religious tolerance that the radical Jihadists want to eliminate. This has been a disgrace to Islam, as it would be for any religion that aspires to greatness, that it could not seem to find the moral and spiritual courage to oppose these depraved acts by its own.

We will see what the follow through will be for Muslims.  But this Fatwa is so clear in its intent that I cannot imagine that these brave Imams have not closed the door once and for all on Islams recent sorry history, thereby redeeming it to stand with other religions as moral authorities that the world so desperately needs.

And let me reiterate that, in the face of implacable radicals who will rage in their caves at this affront, this was an act of impressive bravery by the Imams. But a bravery no less held by ordinary Muslims, as this quote attests from one of the protesters outside the courthouse where Abdulmutalab was being arraigned:

We're gonna let the terrorists know that, you want us, we're here, we're on camera, you want to kill us? Here's the bulls eye right here (points to forehead) come kill us because we're Americans and we're Muslims and we're against you!

It seems we are all Muslims now, as Muslims are all us now, in that curious and historically unique way the American culture has afforded for disparate groups to come together under common values of justice and freedom to oppose injustice, intolerance, and barabarism wherever it raises its ugly head.

If so, the Jihadists days are most certainly numbered.

(h/t Nancy Morgan)