Thomas Friedman in the New York Times (18 May 2005) denounces Muslims for their failure to take a stand against anti-Shia atrocities in Iraq: “… these mass murders – this desecration and dismemberment of real Muslims by other Muslims – have not prompted a single protest march anywhere in the Muslim world. And I have not read of a single fatwa issued by any Muslim cleric outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass murders of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers.”
In reply, Marc Lynch quotes the Egyptian “New Islamist” Fahmy Huwaydi: “A strong Islamist condemnation is required … for the killing of Shia in Iraq … and for ignorant Salafism…. This has nothing to do with nationalist resistance … it is a form of terrorist crime which can not be justified in any way, and its criminal nature will never be changed by a statement or a fatwa issued by Abu Musab al Zarqawi condemning Shi’ites.”
“Of course”, Lynch comments, “Huwaydi’s piece wasn’t translated by MEMRI, so for Tom Friedman his article does not exist.”
In the discussion that followed, Lynch added that earlier condemnations of attacks on civilians in Iraq, by Huwaydi’s co-thinker Yusuf al-Qaradawi, “had some real effect on Zarqawi’s activities – which helps proves Friedman’s point that such denunciations are important, but cuts against his ‘there are no denunciations’ point”.