A Possible Second Motive?

While I have no doubt that the attack in London was done out of hate for that society by al Qaeda and similar elements, there may have been a secondary objective.

WunderKraut had a very well written post stating that the outrage of the moderate Muslim world would be a indicator of how peaceful this religion really is? So isn't it an interesting coincidence that at the same time a group of all the major Shia and Sunni clerics were meeting in Jordan. Why were they meeting?

"The Muslim world's top scholars have agreed that fatwas, or religious edicts, should only be issued by clerics with religious authority.

The move is meant to weaken statements by figures involved in fighting in Iraq who ordain violence."

It goes on further to say that they scholars have decreed that

"[F]ollowers cannot label other Muslims as "apostates", something groups in Iraq have done to justify attacks against Iraqi police and civilians."

It goes on to say that:

The meeting, which brought together about 180 scholars and clergymen from 40 countries including the United States, was sponsored by the semi-independent Al Elbeit Foundation. The religious think-tank is led and partly financed by members of Jordan's ruling Hashemite dynasty, which claims direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad. Jordan's King Abdullah II brought the clerics together to discuss a plan to implement a Jordanian initiative declared in November. Dubbed the "Amman Message", the initiative urges Muslims to reject extremism, embrace moderation and tolerate other religions.

That, for those of you scoring at home, is a call for tolerance and a rejection of extremism from the middle east. You have to know that the average "Iraqi insurgent", which normally seems to neither be from Iraq or actually fight against coalition forces, can't be happy that this effectively pulls the rug out from under their feet and eliminates their "ends justifies the means" reasoning with the average Muslim. That is a blow to recruiting and sanctuary that they desperately need to operate. So, it is reasonable to say that a possible partial motivation to this is to override the press and the effect of these talks and make it the worlds perception that the leaders of this religion are nothing more than paper tigers. I think that in their minds, while continuing to attack their western enemies, they also are trying to send a message to the Islamic world as well that these leaders are irrelevant to the movement they are a part of.

The main response by the people of the middle east will be very interesting to watch with these two contrasting actions taking place simultaneously.

Also a side note, if the call for a stop to extremism and a tolerance of other religions by the major religious scholars of Islam fell under Bush's watch, do you think CNN would report it?