This is likely to be construed in some circles in the West as confirmation that Islam teaches peace, and a welcome avowal by “moderates” that jihad is un-Islamic. But note that Hamas is not criticized for its jihad against Israel, only for its treatment of “Palestinians.”
“In groundbreaking ruling, Middle Eastern Islamic council declares ‘fatwa’ against Hamas,” by Ruth Marks Eglash, Fox News, March 12, 2023:
JERUSALEM – In a groundbreaking ruling, an official Islamic legislative body based in the Arab world declared a “fatwa,” or a legal opinion, against the Islamist militant group Hamas Thursday, calling its treatment of millions of Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip “inhumane” and urging the terrorist organization and its followers to immediately give up arms, sit down and make peace.
The unprecedented declaration, published by the Islamic Fatwa Council, a non-government body of Shiite, Sunni and Sufi clerics headquartered in the Iraqi spiritual capital of Najaf, states that Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, “bears responsibility for its own reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians within Gaza” and deems “it prohibited to pray for, join, support, finance or fight on behalf of Hamas.”
“As an Islamic legal body, we take note of the condition of the oppressed all over the world,” Muhammad Ali Al-Maqdisi, a cleric for the council, said in a video statement shared with Fox News Digital.
“We have seen what Gaza has been subjected to under Hamas’ rule. We have also seen the atrocities which, in our view, have been perpetrated against Palestinians — faithful and unarmed civilians — who have neither strength nor recourse. And, so, we believed it was our Islamic obligation to aid the oppressed.”
Al-Maqdisi, who also serves as the council’s official spokesman, added, “This is what our religion commands of us. Our faith, in its wisdom, enjoins us to be the enemy of the oppressor and an aid to the oppressed. That is why the fatwa was issued against Hamas.”
According to the council, the decision to issue the legal ruling, which while being non-binding is considered highly influential in the Muslim world, came after the publication of a series of video testimonies from ordinary civilians in Gaza published last month by the U.S.-based Center for Peace Communications.
The series, “Whispered In Gaza,” which used animation and voice-altering technology to protect the identity of the Gaza-based speakers, offered a rare and unfiltered glimpse into life in the poverty-stricken, embattled Palestinian enclave and highlighted the anger and fears ordinary people there have toward their autocratic Hamas rulers….
Grand Ayatollah Fadhil al-Budairi, one of the three chairmen of the Fatwa Council, said in a separate video statement that, after seeing the evidence, the “Islamic authority stands with the oppressed Palestinian people.”
“We do not accept that any harm be done to them, whether it comes from Israel or from Palestinian governing elements, whether they be from Hamas or others,” he said. “The Palestinian people have suffered enough, and we do not accept that this oppression continues. We implore the Islamic and humanitarian organizations to aid in the preservation and protection of human rights in the Palestinian context.”
While the fatwa marks the first time any accredited Islamic legislative body has explicitly declared Hamas to be illegitimate from the vantage point of Islamic law, it follows similar rulings by the UAE Fatwa Council and the Council of Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia against the Muslim Brotherhood movement and all of its branches, declaring them terrorist organizations “that defame Islam and operate in opposition to mainstream Islamic unity, theology and jurisprudence.”…
somehistory says
mozlums feel free to criticize other mozlums, and all infidels, to the death.
as long as islam exists, there will be war and murders and rapes.
the Bible says, “There is no peace for the wicked.” mozlums can’t find peace or know peace. Their book teaches them war without any reason, hate, murder and rape…all wicked deeds. They war with anyone and everyone who does not behave exactly as they say….and there is no consensus among them about who, exactly, is correct.