Fatwa Issued on bin Laden

On the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 and wounded 1,900, all of the city’s 650 churches began ringing their bells at sunrise; traffic and work stopped for five minutes of silence; a memorial park of olive and cyprus trees was opened; and the Islamic Commission of Spain, the main representative body for the country’s one million Muslims, issued a fatwa against Osama bin Laden, declaring that his and al-Qa’eda’s acts of terrorism “‘are totally banned and must be roundly condemned as part of Islam.'” The fatwa is thought to be the first major condemnation of bin Laden by a mainstream Muslim organization.