“We are all against terror together”, Spanish Muslims join national mourning day commemorating first anniversary of Madrid blasts. (Reuters)

MADRID, March 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Joining their fellow citizens in a national day of mourning, Spanish Muslims Friday, March 11, highlighted their anti-terror stance and thanked the Spanish society at large for drawing a line between Islam and terror.

The Muslim minority also made a strong presence in ceremonies marking the first anniversary of Madrid blasts, further distancing their members from the attacks.

Mansour Escudero, who leads the Federation of Islamic religious entities (Feeri) and co-secretary general of the Commission said the group was inviting Spanish-based imams to condemn terrorism at Friday prayers.

“We have called on imams to make a formal declaration condemning terrorism and for a special prayer for all the victims of terrorism,” Escudero said.

The Commission has also drawn up a document designed to “thank the Spanish people and the government for their attitude towards Muslims” since last March 11, in particular for not taking “disproportionate” measures similar to those which the September 11 attacks sparked in the United States.

The commission called on Muslims to take part in Friday's commemorative program being organized by Spanish authorities and community groups and to work with them to ensure terrorism was defeated.

“We feel deep and strong solidarity with the victims and their loved ones who have shown an exemplary attitude by never pointing a finger at the country's Muslim population but on the contrary, could tell the difference between terrorists and the Muslim people”, another secretary general of the commission, Riay Tatary, told private Spanish radio Cadena Ser.

Referring to the train bombings in Madrid the same day last year, he said: “It causes profound pain to all Muslims.”

In the face of international terrorism, he said, “they 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.”

Tatari added the country’s Muslims wanted “to express their strongest thanks to all the Spanish people.”

According to Muslim associations, there are some 230,000 immigrant Muslims in Spain, mostly in the northeastern region of Catalonia, in addition to some 260,000 native Spaniards who profess the faith.

This came as Spain’s main Islamic body issued a fatwa against Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whose ghostly organization claimed the Madrid bombings exactly one year ago.

The five-page fatwa declared Thursday, March 10, that “the terrorist acts” of Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden “are totally forbidden and the object of strong condemnation by Islam,” according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The fatwa was issued by the Islamic commission of Spain, created by the government in 1991 to be the representative of the country’s Muslim minority.

The fatwa said Bin Laden is “outside Islam”, adding that he, Al-Qaeda and all those “who try to justify terrorism by basing it on the Noble Qur’an are outside Islam.”

The fatwa is believed to represent the first major condemnation of bin Laden by a mainstream Muslim organization.

Given the group’s support for “the legality of terrorism," Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda “must not be considered Muslims nor treated as such,” the fatwa read.

It furthermore called for everyone to avoid deploying the term “Islam or Islamist to refer to these miscreants.”

Most Muslim scholars and population have denounced the explosions of Madrid blasts, which left 191 people, and the September 11 attacks two years earlier –- also blamed on Al-Qaeda.

But they stopped short of deeming Bin Laden apostate or outside Islam.

“Jurists unanimously view that apostasy consists of denying the message (or any of the teachings) of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And that committing sins, however grave they may be, cannot result in apostasy,” according to Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, the deputy chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research in an earlier fatwa to IslamOnline.net.

Although many Muslim scholars shared condemnation of Bin Laden, they have never issued a fatwa calling him a terrorist or apostate.

Ali Jum’ah, Egypt’s mufti and a professor of Islamic jurisprudence, said in an earlier fatwa, that to say Bin laden is a terrorist is a personal judgment.

“It is better that such matter be left for an impartial judiciary to decide, by probing into evidence and addressing related issues that will help it reach final decisions, instead of playing tricks with people’s minds and avoid dealing with the issue extensively,” he said.

While Imam Ahmad, a Muslim scholar who created a school in Islam, said “Command, prohibition, reward, punishment, and judging someone as kafir (apostate) or wrongdoer are absolutely restricted to Allah and His messenger and none besides them.”

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