Muslim support
Leaders endorse the war on terrorism
Union-Tribune Editorial October 15, 2001
signonsandiego.com
Americans should not be fooled by the sporadic street demonstrations in Muslim nations which have occurred since the bombing of Afghanistan began. The demonstrations are by small -- if highly energetic -- minorities.
Mainstream Muslim thought -- both Arab and non-Arab -- overwhelmingly supports the justice of America's retaliation against terrorists and their supporters.
Last week's Islamic conference in Qatar unanimously rejected the terrorists' links to Islam. "These terrorist acts contradict the teaching of all religions and human and moral values," said the 56 member nations in a statement.
Huge political differences exist among Muslim nations, which stretch in an arc from Morocco, on the Atlantic, to Indonesia, which touches the Pacific. Some of these nations, such as Iran, are theocracies. Others, like Turkey, are secular. Most have a healthy separation of church and state.
But all of them agreed in Qatar that nothing in Islam justified the attack by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist ring, under the cover of religion, on American civilians.
Bin Laden and Mullah Omar, his Afghan protector, found no support in Qatar. While the Islamic states issued a generic statement opposing "the targeting of any Islamic or Arab state under the pretext of fighting terrorism," there was no direct condemnation of the United States and its allies for their assault on terrorist bases in Afghanistan.
The president of the conference, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, was even more explicit about Sept. 11: "We assert our utter rejection of these attacks." He warned, however, that America and its allies "must not touch innocent civilians and must not extend beyond those who carried out those attacks" -- a clear reference to some Bush advisers who advocate taking the war into other nations, principally Iraq.
Britain, America's main ally in this fight, has made the same point, arguing that to broaden the war would wreck the current coalition aligned against Afghanistan.
Bin Laden's goal of provoking a war between America and Islam has clearly backfired. The war has become one of America and Islam against bin Laden and terrorism. The Islamic meeting showed no support among the governments of any Islamic nation, including those hostile to America, for bin Laden and terrorism.
Islam's political leaders were joined last week by Arab religious leaders who issued a fatwa, or political opinion, stating that it was the duty of all Muslims to participate in the apprehension of the terrorists. Among the signers was Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Qatar, regarded as one of Islam's leading legal scholars.
This support is welcome news. There are good and bad wars, and bin Laden's notion of jihad, or holy war against America, has been utterly rejected by Islamic political and religious opinion. |
