02.03.2010

Former Pakistani politician Muhammad Tahir ul Qadri has branded terrorists and suicide bombers "unbelievers," and says their final destination is not paradise, but hell. He will deliver a speech in London tomorrow outlining his verdicts.

Ul Qadri has issued a fatwa against terror, accusing Muslim clerics of not doing enough to fight extremism. He told journalists, "This is the first, most comprehensive fatwa on the subject of terrorism ever written."

The head of the global Minhaj ul Quran religious and educational organisation says he's also concerned about the radicalisation of British Muslims on university campuses.

"The reality is that whatever these terrorists are doing it is not martyrdom. All these activities are taking them to hellfire," ul Qadri is due to tell his audience during Wednesday's speech.

The fatwa will be one of the first to be published in English, and online, in an effort to compete with the internet domination of violent fatwas. Ul Qadri's religious edict aims to offer an authoritative theological explanation as opposed to an outright moral condemnation on why terrorism is incompatible with Islam.

The respected scholar, who has written about 350 books on Islamic scholarship, is from Pakistan. The majority of Britain's 1.7 million Muslim population also hails from Pakistan and ul Qadri believes his fatwa will hold weight with the majority of those with radical leanings.

"I will say more than 50 percent will change their way, they will be influenced. Of the remaining 50 percent at least some of them, half of them, will become doubtful about their life, their terrorist activity," he said.

The Muslim Council of Britain has welcomed the fatwa and representatives of the government will attend tomorrow's speech.