Fatwas

This blogger reminds us to look at OBL's original Fatwas of 1996 and 1998 to understand the enemy.

The 1998 Fatwa begins

Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said "I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders."

Apparently the "Religion of Peace" only applies that Peace to other Muslims, or its dhimmi slaves. Christians, by the way, are considered idolaters in Islam, because of their belief in the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and Mary the Mother.

The elevation of Mary to divinity as part of the Trinity by Christians is considered a blasphemous heresy by Muslims.

Oh, you thought the third member of the Trinity was the Holy Spirit and not Mary? Don't be silly, the Koran tells otherwise, and it's never wrong, every word being the perfect Will of Allah, and an exact copy of a holy text on a tablet in Heaven -- in Arabic, no less!

Don't think this is a minor point. "Educated" Muslims actually believe this about the Christian Trinity and it's impossible to convince them otherwise. Many years ago, as an undergraduate at Princeton taking an Early Middle Ages history course, one of the lecturers told us what seemed at the time a merely amusing anecdote. This lecturer told of being at a scholarly history conference in the Middle East, and of being accosted by a Muslim professor for his obviously heretical Christian Trinity belief of Mary's divinity. He protested Christians believed nothing of the sort, but the Muslim professor dismissed his claim because "it's in the Koran." (5.116)

The only way to change the mind of such a person is to put a bullet through it.

You see, reforming Islam is impossible, because its core tenet is its perfection and unchangeability; it was devised that way. And the punishment for apostasy is death.

Isn't that tidy?

As Mufti Elias explains,

Muhammed (P.B.U.H.) is the last Prophet, though, and there is none after him. Hence, Islam is the last religion, complete, with the Holy Qur'an as the unchanged and perfect word of Allah for over 1400 years, as Allah promised to preserve it till the last day for all of humankind, unlike sacred texts of other religions which have mulitple versions and are "revised" periodically.

As an interesting aside, Muslim theology teaches that when Jesus returns to slay the Anti-Christ, he and the Mahdi Army (Sadr's followers call themselves the Mahdi Army) will also kill all the Jews.

Isn't that precious?

But I digress.

Back to the Fatwa, which one should recall was issued when Clinton was President, so this can't be blamed on Bush's policies:

...in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it...This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah."
...
We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.

Ya got that? Is that clear enough for you?