"By their fruits you shall know them."–Matthew 7:20

Thanks, R'Cat, for reminding me to get this up Was so drained when I finally sat down at the comp last night I didn't even comment on THE news of the day. Well, here's my comment: American Muslims missed the "civilized response" boat five years ago and have refused to book passage since. What's changed, now? Reuters (of course) puts a positive spin on it: "Top U.S. Muslim scholars issued a "fatwa," or religious edict, against terrorism on Thursday and called on Muslims to help authorities fight the scourge of militant violence. "The fatwa was part of efforts by U.S. Muslims to counter perceived links between Islam and terrorism and avert any negative backlash after this month's bombings by suspected Islamic extremists in London and Egypt." Of course Reuters (almost "al Jazeera West") presents this as a genuine proclaimation, but since it's taken four years of bloody, brutal, vicious attacks by their co-religionists since 2001 (let alone the previous 20 years! ) I hope you'll pardon me for casting a jaundiced eye at this as being too little, too late. It's as though Georgy Malenkov were to step up and say, "I never really agreed with Stalin's policies of killing millions of our countrymen while I was his Deputy Secretary. I was just along for the ride," and expect folks to believe him. No, these Muslims have aided and abetted in the brutal attacks for all this time by being silent when they could have spoken. Speaking out now seems disingenuous. Worse, it echoes the Koran's encouragement of Muslims to lie to unbelievers whenever they feel it would advance the purposes of Islam. (See also here and here.) "Let not the believers take the disbelievers for friends rather than believers. And whoever does this has no connection with Allah unless it is done to guard (Takeyya) yourselves against them, guarding carefully. And Allah cautions you against His retribution. And to Allah is the eventual coming." (Koran 3:27) The principle of Al Takeyya is precisely what makes negotiations with Islamic statesmen such a frustrating endeavor for the naïve diplomats of Christianized nations. It is imperative that diplomatic envoys learn that when dealing with Muslims, what Muslim statesmen say is not the issue. The real issue is, what do they mean and actually intend to do in their hearts._*_ I'd rather let them be tested by scriptures other than their own: "By their fruits you shall know them."–Matthew 7:20 If this fatwa results in Muslims informing on jihadist terrorists (thus twarting plans to attack noncombatant men, women and children); if this fatwa results in sutting off the flow of money and matériel serving jihadist terrorism; if this fatwa results in Muslims who actively oppose their co-religionist jihadist terrorists in genuinely substantive ways, then this proclaimation will be believable. Until then, I'll view it with great distrust. Words are easy. How about some moral, civilized action, sheetheads? Update: Looks like lgf was on top of this all along. Could saved my fingers some typin' had I checked them out earlier, but was just too pooped last night to click on over there. Over 600 comments... *sheesh* Some-a those folks oughta get their own blogs... heh