Leading American scholars and practitioners of Islam said yesterday that Osama bin Laden had twisted and debased Muslim theology in a videotaped statement in which he called on "every Muslim" to "rush to make his religion victorious" by emulating those who attacked the United States on Sept. 11.
Ingrid Mattson, a professor of Islamic studies and Muslim-Christian relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, said there was no basis in Islamic law or sacred text for Mr. bin Laden's remarks.
"The basic theological distortion is that any means are permitted to achieve the end of protesting against perceived oppression," said Dr. Mattson, a practicing Muslim.
"Islamic law is very clear: terrorism is not permitted," she added. "Even in a legitimate war — even if Osama bin Laden were a legitimate head of state, which he's not — you're not permitted to indiscriminately kill civilians, just to create terror in the general population."
Mr. bin Laden's comments were broadcast in Arabic yesterday by Al Jazeera television in Qatar, soon after American and British forces began military strikes against Afghanistan.
While he did not take credit for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Mr. bin Laden described those who executed the assaults as "vanguards of Islam" whom "God blessed."
He also invoked God's name in vowing that "neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of security" until "the infidel armies" have vacated Israel and the Arab world.
Of America and its allies, Mr. bin Laden said, "May God show them his wrath and give them what they deserve."
Dr. Faroque Khan, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, N.Y., said Mr. bin Laden's militant interpretation of the Koran and other sacred texts was not consistent with "my understanding."
"Islam teaches very clearly that you don't harm the innocent," Dr. Khan said. "His is the view of one person sitting somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan. It doesn't affect the views of law-abiding citizens, Americans in the United States.
"No Muslims in America are going to rise up in response."
Dr. Maher Hathout, senior adviser of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an organization based in Los Angeles that seeks to explain Islam to the wider American population, said the Koran permitted "anyone to call on God for anything."
That said, Dr. Hathout added, "It is for the Almighty to make the judgment of whether to act."
The half-dozen clerics and scholars interviewed said that even if they had been critical of the American policies that so inflamed Mr. bin Laden, like United States support for Israel, there was no way to rationalize the violent course that he was advocating.
"There is no justification in turning your anger and frustration in one part of the world against civilians in another," said Imam Fawaz Damra, the director of the Islamic Center of Cleveland.
Those interviewed said the Koran's prohibition against the killing of the innocent could prove thorny if civilian lives were lost in the American and British attacks on Afghanistan. But they said they nonetheless considered the American response justified.
"We wish there had been a diplomatic resolution to the crisis," Dr. Khan said. "But we are squarely behind the American leadership in getting the perpetrators of this crime to justice."