March 3, 2010

A leading Muslim scholar in Britain issued a fatwa on Tuesday condemning terrorists and suicide bombers, saying they had no justification in the name of Islam.

Pakistan-born Dr Tahir ul-Qadri said there were no "ifs or buts" about terrorism, in a news conference attended by officers from London's Metropolitan Police, MPs, charitable organisations and think-tanks.

He said he wanted to convey the message that acts of terrorism cut people off as true followers of Islam.

"They can't claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdom operations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma (the wider Muslim community)," he said.

"No, they become heroes of hellfire, and they are leading towards hellfire.

"There is no place for any martyrdom and their act is never, ever to be considered jihad,."

Qadri said his 600-page fatwa, or religious ruling, was an "absolute" condemnation of terrorism without "any excuses or pretexts".

"Good intentions cannot convert a wrong into good, they cannot convert an evil into good," he said.

"Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses or ifs or buts."

He said Islam was a religion of peace that promotes beauty, "betterment", goodness and "negates all form of mischief and strife".

The fatwa will be translated into English in the coming weeks and made available online in an attempt to counter extremist versions of Islam available on the internet.

Qadri founded the Minhaj-ul-Quran movement, which has thousands of supporters in Britain and across the world.

In Britain, it says it runs courses in combating religious extremism in educational centres in London, Manchester and Birmingham.