Baghdad - As many as 350 Muslim religious scholars meeting in Baghdad have confirmed in the strongest terms the legitimacy of martyrdom operations as one of the highest forms of Jihad against oppression.

The scholars unanimously concluded after three days of deliberations that Palestinian Mujahideen, or freedom fighters, who blow themselves up at enemy targets are not suicidal but are bona fide martyrs whose acts are totally compatible with Islamic teachings.

"It is the duty of every Muslim facing overwhelming and brutal aggression, as is the case in Palestine, to confront this oppression with all available means," said the scholars in their edict.

The edict reaffirmed previous edicts by such prominent Islamic jurists as Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, who ruled that freedom fighters who detonate explosives strapped to themselves sacrifice their lives to attack the "enemies of God and Islam."

"The people of Palestine have been forced into a situation where they must choose between dying as martyr-bombers or slaughtered like sheep at the hands of a nefarious enemy. Dying as martyr-bombers in this case is considered a very sublime form of Jihad," said the edict.

Martyrdom operations, which the Jewish-controlled media in the U.S. and Europe refer to as "suicide bomb attacks," have attracted overwhelming support among Muslim theologians, particularly after Palestinian Islamist leaders explained that martyrdom operations were the only means to make the Jews refrain from perpetrating a large-scale holocaust against Palestinian civilians.

This point was also illustrated during the Baghdad conference and reportedly received unanimous approval from participating scholars.

A few months ago, the U.S. exerted behind-the-curtain pressure on the Saudi government to instruct the Saudi religious establishment to issue edicts opposing martyrdom operations.

However, many Saudi scholars rejected American pressure to that effect, describing American intervention in "Islamic theological matters as brazen and shameless. "

EDITOR'S NOTE: A martyr is someone who is killed by someone else for who they are and what they believe. A martyr is NOT a person who commits suicide while detonating a belt of explosives strapped to their body so they can murder as many bystanders as possible.

Martin Luther King was a martyr.
Mohandas Gandhi was a martyr.
Jesus was a martyr.
The students of Tiananmen Square were martyrs.
Abraham Lincoln was a martyr.
Matthew Shepard was a martyr.

Islamic suicide bombers, or shahid, are cowardly, spineless, murderers. They have no honor. There is no glory for them. They are fools.