Blair to meet Muslim leaders after fatwa against suicide bombers
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-19 15:53

British Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared for talks with British Muslim leaders after his drive against the religious extremism he blames for the London attacks was boosted by a fatwa banning suicide bombings.

Blair was set to meet with dozens of leaders from Britain's 1.6 million-strong Muslim community to recruit them in his drive to stamp out what he calls the "evil ideology" of Islamist militancy.

The meeting comes after more than 500 British Muslim leaders and scholars condemned the killing of innocents in the July 7 terror attacks on three subway trains and a bus, and said suicide bombings were "vehemently prohibited."

The British Muslim Forum issued the fatwa, or formal legal opinion, as more than 50 Muslim religious leaders from around Britain stood outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday to hear it read out, the BBC reported.

The death toll from the country's worst terror attack -- believed to have been suicide bombings carried out by British-born Muslims -- rose by one to 56 on Monday.

The Financial Times said Blair will try to persuade Muslim leaders that the root causes of the London attacks lay in warped versions of Islam, rather than political causes such as the war on Iraq.

Several politicians, a leading think tank and popular opinion contend that the attacks were at least partly a result of Blair's decision to send British troops in support of the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House, concluded in a report that the war in Iraq gave a "boost" to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and made Britain especially vulnerable to attacks.

"There is no doubt that the situation over Iraq has imposed particular difficulties for the UK, and for the wider coalition against terrorism," said the London-based research center in its study.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw however denied the allegation that London's part in the US-led, March 2003 invasion made it more vulnerable

"I'm astonished that Chatham House is now saying that we should not have stood shoulder to shoulder with our long-standing allies in the United States," Straw said on arrival at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Chatham House also heavily criticised the British government's anti-terrorism strategy, accusing it of working shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States as a back seat passenger rather than an equal decision maker.

Its report was entitled "Riding Pillion for Tackling Terrorism is a High-risk Policy."

To this charge, Blair's official spokesman said both London and Washington simply had the same priorities in the fight against terrorism.

"What it means is that we work with allies," he added.

The Guardian newspaper published a poll showing that 33 percent of Britons said Blair bears "a lot of responsibility" for the attacks because of the war in Iraq, while another 31 percent said he bears "a little" responsibility.

Britain's interior minister Charles Clarke moved a step closer Monday to passing tough new anti-terrorism laws by December after he won "broad support" from the opposition parties in the wake of the London bombings.

Clarke said he and his counterparts in the main opposition Conservative and smaller Liberal Democrat parties agreed in principle to co-operate on the draft legislation following hour-long talks.

"We believe that is the right way to go and we believe that it will enable us to address the threat we face with a unity and determination which is critical," Clarke, flanked by David Davis of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats' Mark Oaten, told reporters.

The bill is expected to be put before lawmakers in October when parliament reopens after its summer recess and become law by December.

The interior minister wrote to opposition parties Friday outlining plans for the bill that would outlaw the indirect incitement of terrorism, for example preachers who praise suicide bombers or describe them as martyrs.

Tougher new laws -- which initially sparked outrage from the opposition when they were first aired earlier this year -- seem likely to win widespread support among a public still reeling from the twin shock of the suicide bombings coupled with the discovery the attackers were home grown.

Asked how confident he was that the bill would survive parliamentary scrutiny, Clarke said: "Very confident. The broad support for where we are is very strong."

The Times reported meanwhile that two of the suspected bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, may have met the chief plotter of the London attacks after arriving in the Pakistani port city of Karachi last November for a visit.

It carried grainy photographs of the pair while they arrived in Karachi.