A sensitive and serious question

Salam my Friend...

The answer you are trying to seek is difficult to explain. Recently, there was a Fatwa (religious ruling) issued by North American Muslims Leaders that they oppose violence. In other parts of the world, like Spain, such things did occur.

Now, the core of your answer. Why are these things not widespread? Why doesn't a Mullah in the Middle East issue such a ruling? The answer is complex in itself and does not involve Islam itself.

You see, you need to first see who committed these atrocities. I am going to be blunt, so I am going to use September 11th as an example. The leaders of Al-Queda, OBL and Zawahiri (sp?) are not recognized religious leaders. By issuing "blank" fatwas, they can incite anger in the masses. Secondly, there are also political and social issues at hand. Many of these countries, where many bombers and hijackers have come from, do not have a clean record with the west. Each side, the West and the Middle East has their own share of violence. The social aspect is that many young individuals in the Middle East do not have jobs. I would say lack of oppertunites and education. When I mean education, I mean real religious education that can be used. Europe has a problem right now where fundementalists are running into various universities and recruting students who have a lack of knowledge of Islam. This can also be said of the Sept. 11th Hijackers. In many ways, there are many factors in play and in essense, I can assure you, Islam is not the root cause of it. People who are using the name of Islam in their actions are doing this.

Again, there is a lot of literature out there, and since you posted here, you must have come across the good and bad. Careful in what you read, because there are a lot of Islamic History "Spin Masters" out there.

Again, I touched the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot in play. There are many books out there on suicide bombings (I can't remember a good one that I recently read), that will explain what is going on.

MrsK, you answered your own question. The problem today is that Fatwas can be issued by any average joe Muslim. The problem is that they often contradict each other. 

Here is another problem, there is no world-wide people to lead the Muslims people. I would assume this is the case in Judaisim. You might have a central scholarly voice, but overall unity is lacking.

That leads to many points, such as why the Muslim world is what it is today. Why it is broken, why there are problems.

Sadly, western media focuses on the bad, and guess why? It's not that they hate Muslims, it's just that hating Muslims sells in the west. It gets you the ratings you need.

MrsK wrote: Have there been responses condemning these acts and the use (or misuse) of Islam as the justification for them? I do not recall seeing media coverage of any such statements.  I suppose I am hoping that you can direct me to something that I either I have missed or that has simply not received media attention. Thank you for your time.

MrsK, There have been SO many condemnation of these acts in the Islamic world. Why they don't get media attention is another story. I am providing a link to the "Not in the Name of Islam" petition that CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, started. Almost 700,000 Muslims from everywhere have signed, and all on this board are encouraged to do so.  

http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?page=notislampetition