The influential International Union of Muslim Scholars has issued a fatwa saying that Arab regimes and armies are required by Islamic Shari’ah to intervene urgently to save Gaza from genocide and mass destruction.
The body of scholars singled out countries bordering Palestine – Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon – and said that military intervention is a Shari’ah obligation upon them.
It also said that leaving Gaza and Palestine to be annihilated and destroyed is a betrayal of Allah and His Messenger (pbuh) and is one of the greatest sins before Allah Almighty.
The International Union of Muslim Scholars was founded by Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradhawi and is headquartered in Qatar, but is comprised of leading scholars from around the globe.
Here is a translation of the fatwa from the original Arabic:
Fatwa regarding the duty of Islamic governments towards the Zionist invasion of Gaza
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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Praise be to God, the Supporter of the mujahideen, the Helper of the oppressed, the Answerer to the prayers of the distressed, the Merciful to women and children, the orphans and the needy, the Defeater of occupying tyrants, the One who shakes the foundations of the aggressing infidels, the Disappointer of the hopes of the hypocrites and the discouraged, and the Reviver of the consciences of the discerning:
As to what follows:
The Ijtihad and Fatwa Committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars is in a permanent and ongoing meeting to follow up on this brutal aggression by the criminal Zionists against the people of Gaza. This is to proclaim the truth and explain the duty of the Ummah towards what is happening to our people in Gaza, and based on that legal duty of scholars towards the Ummah’s first issue, the issue of Palestine, it issued a fatwa as follows:
1. It is legally required for the ruling regimes and official armies to intervene urgently to save Gaza from genocide and comprehensive destruction, in full commitment to the duty of supporting Palestine religiously, politically, legally and morally, in accordance with international covenants and the strategic interests of the region and the Ummah, and in accordance with their legitimate mandate over the peoples.
2. The duty of military intervention and supply of military equipment and expertise is legally binding, according to the following:
a) First, on the Palestinian interior at the level of the Palestinian Authority and all the resistance factions in the West Bank and 1948 areas.
b) On the surrounding countries, starting with Egypt, then Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
c) On all Arab and Islamic countries, in coordination with the Palestinian interior and the four surrounding states, within an urgent alliance that overcomes the state of hesitation and weakness that has lasted for decades, which led to the occupier continuing its unlimited crimes, which have become a warning of a general and comprehensive holocaust, and a comprehensive collapse of the region and the surroundings.
3. It is the legal duty of scholars, elites, and all kinds of bodies to take urgent action to carry out their duty. From the pressure on the ruling regimes, official armies, and legislative, parliamentary and judicial political institutions to intervene urgently and act quickly, and to bear their religious, historical, constitutional and strategic responsibilities.
4. The most dangerous thing that afflicts people is the state of despair in achieving their rights and repelling injustices against them, which may herald general unrest whose extent and outcome only God knows, especially in the face of the recent Zionist aggression with full, scandalous and provocative Western support, and the betrayal of the resistance and the hundreds of millions who support it, and work to uprooting every organ, imprisoning every voice, and silencing every soul, for the purpose of general annihilation, comprehensive destruction, and replacing land with something other than land, as well as in the face of paths of futility, procrastination, lying, and betrayal, for decades and decades, to no avail, but rather with more destruction, displacement, settlement, and continued aggression and corruption.
5. Regarding, the comprehensive Western support – military, financial, media, diplomatic and strategic. It is imperative for Arab and Islamic countries to reciprocate militarily, financially, in the media, diplomatically and strategically, in order to achieve international balance and prevent tyranny that may be met with unrest which may herald collapse. It is inconceivable that the official armies, which number four million, and on which $170 billion are spent annually, remain confined to their barracks, their weapons rust, their systems collapse, the nation collapses, and the world collapses.
6. Jihad and supply of equipment in Palestine are a legitimate duty and an Islamic and humanitarian responsibility. It is forbidden by Islamic law to remain silent about aggression and not repel it with the movement of ruling regimes and official armies. Leaving Gaza, Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, and Palestine for annihilation and destruction is a betrayal of God, His Messenger, and the believers, and among the greatest of major sins and the greatest of sins. With God Almighty.
Issued by the Ijtihad and Fatwa Committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars
