And which states would those be, Dr. Qaradawi? Who’s in dar al-harb, the “house of war?” “Islam against citizenship in ‘hostile state’,” from The Peninsula:
DOHA – Prominent Islamic cleric Dr Yusuf Al Qaradawi has said that Muslims accepting the nationality of non-Islamic countries in times of war is against the teachings and tenets of Islam.
“It’s a betrayal of Allah and His Prophet (PBUH),” the scholar said of a Muslim accepting the citizenship of a hostile non-Muslim country in times of war. His comments were carried by a local Arabic daily in a special Ramadan supplement yesterday.
Muslim clerics in Tunisia had issued an edict (fatwa) during the invasion of their country by the French forbidding Muslims from accepting French nationality, he said. Anyone defying the edict was considered a non-Muslim.
Islamic edicts of this kind are an effective means of resisting invasions by colonisers and a strong weapon in waging jihad, the cleric said. But Muslims need to travel
and settle down in countries other than their own.
This way they get an opportunity to become nationals of other countries and get
political rights, which ensure their empowerment.
Things are changing now due to globalisation and modern outlook on life. But there was a time when scholars like Hassan Al Banna (the Egyptian scholar who is considered
the founder of the Akhwan Al Muslemeen or Muslim Brotherhood movement) were quite strict when it came to issuing fatwa on issues like migration of Muslims and their accepting the nationality of non-Muslim countries, said Al Qaradawi.
Muftis (those authorised to issue edicts) change with time and circumstances and as they become more mature and richer in experience, their outlook on issues changes.
But what has really changed here? Qaradawi has not specified any hostile non-Islamic states, and he still upholds the prohibition on accepting the nationality of a hostile state. Nor does he forthrightly address the possibility of simply living in such a country without acquiring citizenship.