Fatawa power.

How do these various eminences in Islam get the authority to issue fatawa? The Colonel's not aware that Osama bin Laden has any standing as a cleric entitled to interpret or pronounce the sharia. Both he and Ayman al-Zawahiri seem rather to have spent their time mastering the skills of guerrilla warfare and curdog terrorism. "I'll get back to you on applying to seminary school, Mom."

Yet, here they are with the power to just announce their personal little ditty and have it invested with the authority of a Papal Encyclical. Coooowll.

And, as with ALL such announcements from on high, there's no way of knowing just where this glittering star to shine down on suffering humanity is located in the Firmament of the Fiqh (FOF), fiqh being Islamic jurisprudence. Or is it jurisimprudence? There's no popular assent to laws, such as where an elected legislature declares the law. Nope, it appears to be Charlie and Mo and Abdul and Suharto and Heinrich who can dispense their personal jewels and "their followers" get with the program. Thus, it appears fiqh is really a vast collection of insular imamical interpretations and Shaytaan take the hindmost when it comes to saying what is really "the" Islamic dernier cri on any issue.

What you have then is a great system of plausible denial. "Oh, that's Uncle Aziz. He's such a jerk off. WE don't believe anything like that. WE don't believe that apostates should be put to death or that adulterers should be wrapped in a bag and stoned to death." It's why CAIR can pretend to take the high road but actually support the very evil they declare they abhor.

Anyway, here's the quote that got Col. Bunny all vexed up:

Five years later, from their refuge in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, announced their merger to create the "World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders". They issued a fatwa declaring that "to kill Americans and their allies, civilians, and military is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able."

[Emphasis added.]

That's what I love about these guys. They just come right out and say, "Let's waste the civilians." How noble. What warriors. What examples of manhood. No doubt hiding out in some cave or hovel in Waziristan eating grubs.

In point of fact, they are a significant degeneration from the early-17th century Turkish officer in Transylvania who became bored with the siege of a particular town and challenged any of the defenders to meet him in single combat.^[1] Now there was a warrior.

More about him later . . . .

Notes
^[1] “Heroes in the Age of the Antihero.” By Thomas Fleming, “Chronicles,” July 2005, p. 10.