A welcome fatwa

For most of the last two decades, the West knew the word fatwa through the death sentence laid by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on author Salman Rushdie for his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which rather mildly satirized his own Muslim religion. The novelist survived (though his Japanese translator was killed in 1991), but had to spend some of those years in fearful, heavily guarded hiding.

Fatwa arose again, though to less notice, after Sept. 11, 2001. Fundamentalist preachers in some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, declared the thousands of victims to be culpable infidels.

Now the fatwa is headed for rehabilitation, this time used in a vigorous backlash against the brand of terrorism that has struck Britain, Spain, Morocco, Egypt and, over and over again, the civilians of Iraq. A broad group of U.S. and Canadian Muslim scholars and religious leaders last week issued a fatwa that is as unequivocally anti-violence as those of Khomeini or Osama bin Laden were pro-murder:

“All acts of terrorism are haram, forbidden by Islam. It is haram, forbidden, to cooperate or associate with ... any act of terrorism or violence.” The declaration then went beyond familiar condemnations to demand action: It is the “civic and religious duty of Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to protect the lives of civilians.”

Similar, if less sweeping, edicts have been issued by British and Spanish clerics in the wake of the attacks in those countries. Even in Iraq, conservative Sunni clergy issued a ruling in April that encouraged followers’ participation in the beleaguered Iraqi army and police. The clerics, however, forbade cooperation with U.S. forces “at the expense of Iraqis,” leaving a lot of room for insurgent interpretation.

The U.S. and Canadian demand for active Muslim prevention of terrorism is new to most Americans, but a message long stressed by moderate U.S. Muslim groups, including the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council. The council, while also focused on Muslim civil rights, is adamant that Muslims in the United States should be robust participants in politics and society. It has offered help to the FBI and other agencies in anti-terrorism efforts.

Notwithstanding events such as the recent terrorism-related arrests of an imam and his 22-year-old U.S.-born son in Lodi, Calif., Muslims are generally part of the mainstream in the United States. European Muslims are more ghettoized, clustered by country of origin and rejected by or rejecting of the mainstream society. As numerous analyses of Britain’s accused bombers have noted, such outsider status makes angry young people more susceptible to the simplistic message of the worst hard-line fundamentalists. That makes it all the more worthwhile to support Muslims trying to head off the still small rumblings of youthful alienation in the United States.

The U.S. is safer for their efforts, but the government has been curiously reticent to acknowledge and praise the anti-terror cooperation of Muslim organizations. The latest fatwa offers a new opportunity. It would be encouraging for these Muslims to hear publicly from President Bush or at least Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff on that point.