On 23 July 2005 , just days after the London bombings , Afifi al-Akiti wrote '' Defending the Transgressed by Censuring the Reckless against the Killing of Civilians '' ( Arabic : '' Mudafi ' al-Mazlum bi-Radd al-Muhamil ' ala Qital Man La Yuqatil '' ) , in the foreword of which , was described by Gibril Haddad as a " fatwa " or a " response by a qualified Muslim scholar against the killing of civilians " . Furthermore : Upon reading Shaykh Afifi 's fatwa do not be surprised to find that you have probably never before seen such clarity of thought and expression together with breadth of knowledge of Islamic Law applied ( by a non-native speaker ) to define key Islamic concepts pertaining to the conduct of war and its jurisprudence , its arena and boundaries , suicide bombing , the reckless targeting of civilians , and more . This work was first published freely available on the Internet . It was written in response to a statement issued by the radical group al-Muhajiroun , which refers to the 9/11 hijackers as the " Magnificent 19 " , and claims that while Muslims who live in the West are not allowed to wage war against the government , Muslims who live elsewhere do not face the same prohibition . In fact , the leader of al-Muhajiroun , Omar Bakri Muhammad , even argues that the British government had broken a supposed " covenant of security " with its Muslim citizens when it embarked on its anti-terror crackdown by introducing anti-terror legislation and indefinite detention of terror suspects . British Muslims therefore had every right to consider themselves at war with the government , he claims . Countering this argument , Afifi al-Akiti says that Omar Bakri has no authority to issue such a war directive as only a Muslim government could issue one . If a Muslim were to carry out such an attack , he would be a murderer and not a martyr or hero
London bombings
7 July 2005 London bombings
Afifi al-Akiti