Spanish Muslim clerics issue fatwa against bin Laden

So why didn't they do this earlier?

Excerpt:

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Muslim clerics in Spain issued what they called the world's first fatwa, or Islamic edict, against Osama bin Laden on Thursday, the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, calling him an apostate and urging others of their faith to denounce the al-Qaida leader.

The ruling was issued by the Islamic Commission of Spain, the main body representing the country's 1 million-member Muslim community. The commission represents 200 or so mostly Sunni mosques, or about 70 percent of all mosques in Spain.

I say:

A nice way to commemorate the anniversary. But that's not enough reason to wait so long. And was he any less of an a-hole *before* the Madrid bombings?

Let me tell you what I think is going on here (and you can't stop me.) This is the fruits of victory. Dubya's victory. He won simply by fighting. Sometimes that's all it takes. And now the enemy is caving. A slow, majestic, magnificent collapse of the edifice of terror. Bin Laden was "in" with certain circles when he was perceived as a winner. But he's not perceived as a winner anymore. Everyone who embraced him is itching to get loose. But they need to figure a way to back away from him without losing too much face. Hence this anniversary fatwa. If they'd done this November 3rd or January 31st, it would have been too blatant.

I was a bit surprised to learn he had survived Tora Bora. But in a way, he didn't survive. Politically, he's dead as disco. And his movement's dying, too. Nothing fails like failure.


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