“The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheik Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, condemned the bombers but went further, rejecting the argument that this attack could be justified as an attempt to force Britain out of Iraq. ‘This is illogical and cannot be the motive for killing innocent civilians,’ he said. More striking have been the condemnations from radical groups like Hamas, Hizbullah and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, all of which have denounced the bombings. Many of them have, of course, coupled their attacks on the terrorists with denunciations of American and British policies in the Middle East, particularly regarding Iraq and the Palestinian territories. But that kind of rhetoric is old news. What is new here is the fact that no one, not even Hamas, can continue to condone or even stay silent about these barbarities.”
An article by Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek, quoted favourably by Marc Lynch, who also provides some useful links to fatwas by Qaradawi and other leading figures in the Muslim world condemning al-Qaida.