It’s been one year since the Madrid train bombings.
On March 11, 2004, commuters boarded their regular trains to begin their regular days.
At 7:39 a.m., 10 bombs hidden in backpacks on random passenger cars were detonated.
The blast killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500. It was the worst terrorist attack in Spain’s history.
In the moments following the attack, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the devastation in a letter sent to an Arab-language newspaper.
Spain commemorated the victims in ceremonies throughout the country. Along with the ceremonies came reports of a religious Islamic edict condemning the alleged perpetrator, Osama bin Laden.
The ruling, or fatwa in Arabic, was issued by Spain’s Islamic Commission, which represents the country’s one million Muslims.
The fatwa stated that according to the Koran “the terrorist acts of Osama bin Laden and his organization al-Qaeda … are totally banned and must be roundly condemned as part of Islam.”
While fatwas can be death sentences, this one calls on Muslims to “keep anyone from doing unjustified damage to other people.”
The decree is commendable because it is the first time such a public and formal condemnation has been issued on bin Laden. The commission and its secretary general, Mansur Escudero, should be applauded for taking a stand against terrorism.
But this condemnation has come a year — or four — too late.
Nothing stood in the way of the commission — or any other association of Muslims — from issuing the fatwa immediately after the bombings, or after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“We felt now we had the responsibility and obligation to make this declaration,” Escudero told reporters.
It remains unclear as to why it took a full year to issue the fatwa. It is also unclear as to why this sense of obligation came at all.
Muslim groups worldwide have been condemning terrorist attacks perpetrated by bin Laden for years, and even more so since Sept. 11, according to Ottawa Imam Gamal Solaiman. He says announcing this fatwa is not any more significant than the less formal denunciations that have been commonplace.
“It sounds like they are just trying to fit in (to Spanish society),” says Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress.
Perhaps, but given that it came a year after the attacks suggests that Spanish Muslims are offering a token apology to their non-Muslim countrymen for the acts of radicals. It might have meant more if they issued the fatwa after the attacks.
Solaiman and Elmasry also say this fatwa won’t change stereotypes of Muslims in the West. By disapproving of bin Laden’s heinous tactics in a formal denouncement, the fatwa might show Western Islamophobes that there is a peaceful side to Islam. But both say countering Western fears of an all-consuming Jihad is unlikely.
“As for those who have made up their minds that Muslims are guilty by association, (the fatwa) won’t change their minds,” Elmasry says.
This fatwa is a valiant effort. Bin Laden surely seems to be violating the tenets of a religion that preaches peace as one of its core beliefs and Muslim leaders should reaffirm that.
But unless bin Laden is sitting in a cave somewhere, deeply perturbed by the fatwa and contemplating changing his ways, it came far too late and has accomplished nothing.