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Sunni group condemns bombings
17/07/2005 21:18 - (SA)
Birmingham, England - Britain's largest Sunni group on Sunday issued a fatwa - a binding religious edict - condemning the July 7 terrorist bombings in London.
Jama'at e Ahl e Sunnat, or the Sunni Council, said the bombings were against Islam, adding that any type of suicide attack was against the Qur'an.
"Leaving aside the atrocities being committed in Palestine and Iraq, the attacks in London have no Islamic justification, are totally condemned and we equally condemn those who may have been behind the masterminding of these acts, those who incited these youths in order to further their own perverted ideology," the group's fatwa said.
"We wish to clarify again and to categorically condemn all forms of terrorism, be it state terrorism or otherwise."
Meeting
More than 2 000 Sunni clerics, scholars and community leaders attended the meeting, which was scheduled before the July 7 bombings that killed 55 and injured 700.
"Who has given anyone the right to kill others? It is a sin. Anyone who commits suicide will be sent to hell," said Mufti Muhammad Gul Rehman Qadri, the council's chairperson. "What happened in London can be seen as a sacrilege. It is a sin to take your life or the life of others."
Another member, Khalid Mahmood, a member of parliament from Birmingham, called it the duty of Muslims to speak out against suicide bombings.
"There are people on the fringes ... who say they are the custodians of the Islam. This is not true," he said. "The mainstream Muslims need to speak out."
Three of the four suspected suicide bombers were born in Britain to parents of Pakistani origin: Khan; Shahzad Tanweer, 22; and 18-year-old Hasib Hussain, all from the Leeds area.
The fourth suspect is Jamaican-born Germaine Lindsay, 19, who came to Britain as an infant.
Leeds
Meanwhile, officers in the northern city of Leeds - a focus of the investigation so far - continued searching an Islamic shop and a house near the home of one of the four alleged bombers, 22-year-old Shahzad Tanweer.
As the probe continued, The Sunday Times reported that another suspected attacker, 30-year-old Mohammad Sidique Khan, was scrutinized last year by MI5, Britain's domestic secret service, but was not regarded as a threat to national security or put under surveillance.
MI5 began evaluating Khan during an inquiry that focused on an alleged plot to explode a large truck bomb outside a target in London thought to be a nightclub in Soho, the newspaper said. The private inquiry reportedly evaluated hundreds of potential suspects.
The Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the report, and a spokesperson for Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office also refused to comment.
- AP
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