Osama's 'hanging' announced by group

An American education committee has announced plans to build a gallows and hang in effigy Osama bin Laden in its campaign to challenge leaders of U.S. Muslims to condemn terrorism.

The United American Committee in protest

Officials with the United American Committee have announced the "hanging" will be held Sept. 10 in front of the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, Calif., in remembrance of the attacks on Sept. 11 five years earlier.

The group is asking leaders of the mosque, and other Muslim groups in the United States, to push for a "fatwa," an Islamic verdict, that would condemn bin Laden and other terrorists by name.

Officials with the UAC said several people who had been indicted on terror allegations had at some point gone through the Culver City mosque, including a former Army sergeant who allegedly threw grenades into another soldier's tent in Iraq.

"The UAC is going there with open arms to them if they wish to embrace America and democracy," the organization’s announcement about the plan said. "As always, we more than welcome Muslims to join us in this event if they desire."

It was just a few weeks earlier when UAC founder Jesse Petrilla told WorldNetDaily of his challenge to the nation’s Islamic community.

He said the UAC, a non-partisan, non-sectarian assembly of thousands of volunteers, wants to promote the awareness of threats that face America from within.

Thus, his call for Islamic leaders to issue the "fatwa," an Islamic verdict citing Quranic verses and the teachings of Islam issued by leaders in the name of Muhammad.

The UAC specifically seeks the condemnation of Osama bin Laden, who admitted on videotape he was responsible for the more than 3,000 deaths during the terrorist assault on the United States on that September morning in 2001.

That action should qualify him as an "apostate" to true Islam, as the American Muslim community has professed that those actions did not represent true Islam, Petrilla said.

However, the group's website notes that it has been 26-plus days since the challenge was issued, and no Muslim leader had yet issued that "fatwa."

The group also is promoting a book drive for United States troops. The UAC is planning on sending "thousands of books on Islamic militancy to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Petrilla said education is a major key in the war on terror.

"Regardless of one's opinions of the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, by providing thousands of books on Islamic militancy to our troops, we will be giving them a better understanding of the true nature of our enemies," he said.

Authors Robert Spencer and Abdullah Al-Araby have promised to provide copies of their books at discounts for the drive, the UAC said.

The idea of a "fatwa" isn’t new; in fact, many American Muslim groups announced one in 2005. However, the UAC said that was ambiguous because while it condemned the use of violence against the innocent, it does not identify the innocent.

Petrilla said the Quran technically describes anyone who is not Muslim as an “infidel” worthy of death, so only a Muslim could be "innocent."

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