From Reuters: [url]http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010918/wl/attack_islam_edict_dc_2.html[/url]

BEIRUT (Reuters) - An influential Shi'ite Muslim religious authority issued an edict Tuesday banning Muslims from joining U.S. military action to avenge deadly suicide attacks on the United States.

"It is not permissible for any Islamic party, country, ruler or political movement to extend any military, security or economic assistance to the United States in its war against any Muslim country or any Muslim faction," Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said in a religious ruling faxed to Reuters.

Fadlallah is a former spiritual mentor of Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hizbollah guerrilla group, but he is widely respected as a scholar among Shi'ites abroad, including moderates.

Last week he condemned as "horrifying" the attacks in which Saudi-born militant leader Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect.

Tuesday's ruling followed a similar edict by Jordanian religious scholars and reflected wariness in the Muslim Middle East of U.S. plans to build a global coalition against "terrorism" after the attacks on New York and Washington.

President Bush has said bin Laden is wanted "dead or alive," and speculation is running high that the first target in what he calls "a war on terror" will be Afghanistan, whose ruling Taliban Islamist group shelters bin Laden.

Fadlallah has warned that exacting indiscriminate vengeance for the attacks will feed ire over U.S. Middle East policy and particularly its backing for Israel, which many Arabs see as the root cause of the suicide attacks on New York and Washington.

"The rulings of the Americans are built on suspicion, not judicial proof, which makes the matter one of American political interests, as it needs to do something to restore its prestige and prove its strength," said the cleric.

Fadlallah, who survived an assassination attempt during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, has assumed a largely spiritual leadership role after falling out with Hizbollah's Iranian patrons.

The group, a main force in driving Israel from south Lebanon last year after a 22-year occupation, pioneered the use of suicide bombings against Western targets during the civil war.

One suicide bombing destroyed the U.S. embassy and another killed more than 200 U.S. Marines camped near Beirut airport. Many foreigners were kidnapped and some killed.

Hizbollah has denied any links to the hostage-takings or bombings.

In a separate statement, the radical Palestinian group Hamas also warned Arabs and Muslims not to take part in possible U.S. military action against Afghanistan.

"Hamas urges Arab and Muslim nations not to give approval, support or cover for this announced war on Afghanistan or any other Islamic or Arab country," it said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Beirut.

Hamas, which has carried out suicide bomb attacks on Israelis during the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, warned that a war on "terrorism" was an Israeli ploy to end the uprising.

"The enemy has incited America and the West against the Arabs, Muslims and the Palestinian resistance...to combat what it calls Islamic terrorism," it said.

So apparently there is no horror that a Muslim  can perpetrate against America that is deserving of punishment or retaliation, according to any Muslim authority I've heard comment. It's all well and good for average Muslim folks to say that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were horrifying, but my heart is just not buying what my head is being told by the media, as long as every so-called Muslim cleric that can get himself in front of a news conference says that we deserved this.

Someone please give me an example of a mullah or imam who says that whoever did this, and whoever helped and harbored them, deserves to be hunted down and killed like the rabid weasels they are.

[b]Freedom isn't free[/b]
Semper Fidelis
Jarhead out.
[img]http://www.inetnow.net/~kudzukid/enlemblem.gif[/img]

Another one:

Agence France-Presse
NEW DELHI, Sept 18 (AFP) - India's top Muslim cleric Tuesday said the terror attacks on the United States were signs of "divine wrath" and a warning for Washington to stop its "anti-Muslim policies."

Syed Ahmed Bukhari in a press conference in India's largest mosque also warned Pakistan against aiding possible US military strikes against Afghanistan (AKA Toast).

Bukhari, who is revered by the subcontinent's 125 million Muslims, also slammed India's Hindu nationalist-led coalition government for offering unconditional support to the US in its efforts to fight global terrorism.

"The world is describing what occurred in America last week as the worst attack of terrorism, but I consider it divine wrath on the American government for all its tyrannical activities," Bukhari said at New Delhi's Jama Masjid mosque.

"In my opinion it is a reaction to the oppressive activities of the US on Muslims in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. ... Muslims are being targeted in different parts of the world for the last 50 years," he added.

While stressing that he felt the "great loss of human lives" in the attacks in the US, the cleric went on to warn the United States that any retaliatory action against Afghanistan would only lead to a new cycle of violence.

"If the US opts to attack Afghanistan a severe reaction from the world will follow swiftly and be natural," Bukhari warned...snip

Shi'ite muslims are a minority generally hated by the larger Sunni muslims, IIRC. most persians are shiite. BTW, we are protecting the shi'ite muslims in southern iraq from sunni Bagdad (hence the southern no fly zone)