Date Posted: Friday, March 11, 2005

Muslims in Spain issued a fatwa against Osama bin Laden saying his beleifs and tactics are out side the parameters of the religion.

MADRID, Mar 11 (MASNET & News Agencies) - As Spain remembered last year’s Madrid train bombings, the country’s leading Islamic body issued a fatwa (religious edict) declaring Osama bin Laden has forsaken Islam and urging others of the faith to denounce the al-Qaeda leader.

In Madrid, traffic came to a halt and people stood still on Madrid sidewalks as Spain showed its grief, solidarity and anger on the one-year anniversary of the March 11 train bombings that ranked as the country's worst-ever terrorist attack, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The five-minute silence from midday left the capital in suspension, its citizens remembering the day a year ago 10 bombs planted by extremists blew apart four commuter trains, killing 191 people and wounding 1,900.

Motorists stepped out of their cars to bow their heads under the bright sunlight. Office workers exited buildings to stand quietly next to pedestrians who looked straight ahead, or at the ground. Trains across the country halted.

Spanish King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero stood solemnly in silence, as television screens everywhere scrolled the long list of the victims' names.

For many survivors and the families of those killed, the public reopening of wound still fresh was too much to bear, and they eschewed the ceremonies to grieve in private.

Others, though, confronted their loss at the three train stations in the capital hit by the blasts blamed on a group loyal to al-Qaeda.

The head of the Islamic Commission representing Spain's sizeable Muslim community, Riay Tatary, told Cadena Ser radio that the day provoked "deep pain for all Muslims."

But he said Spaniards "knew how to make a clear distinction and see that the terror attacks against the Spanish people were born from the hate of a small minority which has nothing to do with the Muslim population."

The Commission also timed its fatwa for Friday as its secretary general, Mansur Escudero, said the fatwa had moral, rather than legal weight and would serve as a guide for Muslims.

"We declare ... that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization, responsible for the horrendous crimes against innocent people who were despicably murdered in the March 11 terrorist attack in Madrid, are outside the parameters of Islam," the commission said.

The commission said the Qur’an barred Muslims from committing crimes against innocent people, reports Reuters.

"The terrorist acts of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization ... which result in the death of civilians, such as women and children ... are totally prohibited and are the object of strong condemnation within Islam," it said in a statement citing extensively from religious texts, the news agency reports.

It added: "Inasmuch as Osama bin Laden and his organization defend terrorism as legal and try to base it on the Quran ... they are committing the crime of 'istihlal' and thus become apostates that should not be considered Muslims or treated as such." The Arabic term 'istihlal' refers to the act of making up one's own laws, reports the Associated Press (AP).

Muslims in Spain have felt increased isolation as a result of the March 11 bombings.

"After March 11, all Muslims have become suspect," Mohammed El Afifi, a spokesman for Madrid's biggest mosque, said recently.

Escudero told Reuters by telephone: "Any group that invokes Islam to justify terrorist attacks places itself outside of Islam."

Bin Laden's claim to recover al-Andalus - the Arabic term for Spain during the nearly 800 years when parts of the country were under Moorish rule - "totally contradict God's will," the commission said.

The commission is the top Islamic body in Spain representing the country’s one million Muslims. The commission represents 200 or so mostly Sunni mosques, or about 70 percent of all mosques in Spain. Its leaders are elected by an assembly and represent the Muslim community in talks with the Spanish government.

Escudero said the group had consulted with Muslim leaders in other countries, such as Morocco - home to most of the jailed suspects in the bombings - Algeria and Libya, and had their support, reports the AP.

"They agree," he said, referring to the Muslim leaders in the three North African countries. "What I want is that they say so publicly."

Escudero said a fatwa can be issued by any Muslim leader who leads prayer sessions and as he serves such a role, he himself lawfully issued the edict, the news agency reports.

He called it an unprecedented condemnation of bin Laden. "We felt now we had the responsibility and obligation to make this declaration," he said in an interview.

"I hope there is a positive reaction from Muslims," he added.

Asked if the edict meant Muslims had to help police try to arrest the world's most wanted man - who is believed to be hiding along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan - Escudero said: "We don't get involved in police affairs, but we do feel that all Muslims are obliged to ... keep anyone from doing unjustified damage to other people."

Meanwhile, in central Madrid, King Juan Carlos and Zapatero opened a park of remembrance where 192 olive and cypress trees will pay lasting tribute to the 191 victims and a policeman who was killed in April last year when the attack's suspected masterminds blew themselves up as officers raided their flat.

President George W. Bush, who criticized Zapatero's decision immediately after winning power to withdraw Spanish troops from the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq, sent a message of sympathy on the eve of the anniversary.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Moroccan King Mohammed VI attended the ceremony, where the minutes of silence came to an end with a lone woman cellist played Pablo Casals' "El Cant dells Ocells" (The Song of the Birds).

Annan, at an earlier media conference, said of the survivors and the victims' families: "The world mourns with them."

The emotional day began with Madrid's 650 churches all ringing at sunrise, at the exact time the bombs went off a year ago. Police carried a wreath to place before a memorial inscribed with the victims' names.

Amid a heavy police presence in the capital, tens of thousands of early-morning commuters got to work on public transport as usual, many bent over newspapers bearing the message that Spain will never forget last year's tragedy.

Spain is still investigating the blasts, though several victims' relatives have expressed disgust with politicking that has dominated the months-long probe.

Twenty-two suspects, most of them Moroccans, are in jail, and another was arrested this week.

Zapatero, who came to power in elections held just three days after the attacks, has thrown his government into combating international terrorism, which now overshadows Spain's four-decade struggle against the Basque separatist group ETA.

For three days preceding the anniversary of the attacks, Madrid played host to an international conference dedicated to the issue.

Annan on Thursday unveiled a five-point global strategy for fighting terrorism, in which he said states should not abandon their adherence to human rights.

The Madrid conference, grouping former presidents and heads of state of democratic countries, on Friday presented the "Madrid Agenda", a series of recommendations aimed at combating terrorism.