The influential Islamic scholar, Shaikh Abdallah bin Bayyah, has advised British Muslims not to go to fight in Syria or Iraq because it is not a “legitimate jihad.”
In an interview with the “anti-extremism” organisation Imams Online, Shaikh bin Bayyah, a sufi, also says:
– the ISIS caliphate is not a real caliphate.
– British Muslims should teach their children the values of love and not hate.
– British Muslims should make their homeland their priority and there must be peaceful co-existence between its citizens.
– The youth must not sully the image of Islam by killing innocents and taking part in a bloody war between Muslims.
Shaikh bin Bayyah was born in Mauritania but now teaches in Saudi Arabia. One of his followers is the American scholar Hamza Yusuf. He is a specialist in all four traditional Sunni schools, with an emphasis on the Maliki madhab.
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He is also a member of the Dublin-based European Council for Fatwa and Research, a council of Muslim clerics that aims at explaining Islamic law in a way that is sensitive to the realities of European Muslims.
