|
Taliban Annuls bin Laden Fatwas Against U.S.
KABUL, June 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Taliban's supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar said this week that fatwas (religious edicts) against the U.S. or U.S. citizens by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden were "null and void" on the basis that bin Laden didn't get sufficient religious schooling.
Mulla Omar's statements came out in interview with the U.S. United Press International news agency that were reprinted in the Times of Central Asia on Saturday.
Mulla Omar popularly known in Afghanistan as Ameer-ul-Mumineen (Supreme Commander of the Believers) said, "Bin Laden is not entitled to issue fatwas as he did not complete the mandatory 12 years of Quranic studies to qualify for the position of mufti."
Mulla Omar who was speaking to UPI with the help of his 24 year old multi-lingual roving ambassador Rahmutullah Hashmi said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had "offered the United States and the United Nations to place international monitors to observe Osama pending a resolution of the case, but so far we have received no reply."
He emphasized that the Taliban government wants to "resolve or dissolve" the bin Laden issue altogether.
He said he expected the U.S. in return to establish a dialogue to work out an acceptable solution that will lead to "an easing and then lifting of U.N. sanctions that are strangling and killing the people of the Emirate."
Commenting on American intelligence reports which claim that bin Laden has issued directives, described by his followers as Fatwas, to carry out terrorist activities against U.S., Mulla Omar said: "Only muftis (seasoned scholars) can issue fatwas. Bin Laden is not a mufti and therefore any fatwas he may have issued are illegal and null and void."
Hashmi who was interpreting for Mulla Omar added, "We also notified the United States we were putting bin Laden on trial last September for his alleged crimes and requested that relevant evidence be presented.
"The court sat for 30 days without any evidence being presented against him. It then extended its hearing for another 10 days to give the U.S. side time to act. But nothing materialized."
According to the Taliban officials, Bin Laden, for his part, swore on the Quran, a solemn undertaking in Islam, he was not linked to those terrorist bombings and that he is not responsible for what others do who claim to know him.
If others acted in his name, that does not make him the culprit, Hashmi said. Moreover, the Qur'an forbids the taking of the lives of women, children and old people in strife, conflict and war."
Commenting on the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania alleged to be carried out by bin Laden associates, Mulla Omar told UPI that they were "criminal acts and the perpetrators are criminals and should be so tried."
Referring to the convictions of so-called bin Laden associates in U.S., one of whom was sentenced for life last Tuesday, Hashmi said that the case against bin Laden was "based on a plea bargain, a concept unknown under Islamic law. Justice is black and white. Plea bargains pervert the very essence of justice."
In 1998, Cable News Network (CNN) after interviewing bin Laden, claimed the he has decreed that all Americans and the Britons must be killed.
But Rahmatullah Hashmi speaking at the University of Southern California on a visit to U.S. earlier this year said that he was present during the interview and CNN had misquoted bin Laden.
He said that the CNN team interviewed bin Laden for almost three hours and, "then they raised a question regarding sanctions against Iraq."
According to Hashmi while speaking on the subject bin laden said, "If all the Americans and all the Britons support killing the Iraqi civilians through the application of sanctions, then they deserve the same. In that case, the American and the Briton must also be killed."
The exiled Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden, is on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's ten-most-wanted list for his alleged role in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in 1998, in which more than 220 people were killed.
He has been living in Afghanistan since 1996.
|
