Iraqi Muslims start a fatwa council against extremists

Here’s some positive news from the ideological battlespace: Iraq’s mainstream Sunni clerics have set up a fatwa council to issue unified religious edicts against Islamist extremism, and particularly al Qaeda.

Reuters reports that the founding committee was established last week. “It’s high time our clerics unify their utterances,” said Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai. “Religious scholars have to work on teaching Muslims respect for others.”

While the council is long overdue, its creation is a welcome development, and occurred only after Sunni extremists indiscriminately killed civilians in traditional tribal areas in Iraq.

“They kill by suspicion and commit senseless bloodletting and boast about it,” the sheikh said. “Whoever kills a Muslim believer should be penalized by going to Hell.” The council apparently will issue fatwas to anathematize extremists and marginalize them from appealing to disaffected Iraqis.

While the fatwas are unlikely to be directed against those who kill American troops, the development is important because it shows that mainstream Sunnis are fighting back against al Qaeda and other extremists.  “Our scholars will meet and issue fatwas and I am full of hope the proper resistance that does not kill fellow Iraqis will heed the views of these scholars,” the sheikh said.

This development parallels recommendations that Dr. Waller made in his new book, Fighting the War of Ideas like a Real War, in which he encouraged Muslim clerics to issue such fatwas, and urged the US government to publicize them globally through its public diplomacy machinery. To date, the US has not wanted to tackle the issue.