Captain's Quarters gives a valiant try to allowing the imams an escape route:
Zarqawi's note clearly shows that Tawhid and Jihad is losing the battle for hearts and minds on the ground, even in the Sunni Triangle. He accuses the ulama for selling out "God's orders" in exchange for their "money and sons". It makes Islam sound like a cult of human sacrifice, and combined with the revolting beheadings that Zarqawi videotapes for the Internet, Muslim scholars may finally be waking up to the bastardization of Islam into a premonotheistic death worship.Sorry folks but Islam means "submission", not peace. If it meant peace -- or had truly gone thru a meaningful "enlightenment" -- then it would not have the death penalty for apostasy.
Case closed.