DOHA, Qatar | Prominent Sunni Muslim scholar Yusef Al-Qaradawi said on Saturday that the
declaration of an Islamic caliphate by jihadists fighting the governments in
Syria and Iraq violates Shariah law.
Last Sunday, the
jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group declared a caliphate in areas they
control in Iraq and Syria and ordered Muslims worldwide to pledge allegiance to
their leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, under the name “caliph Ibrahim.”
Qatar-based
Qaradawi, seen as a spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in his native
Egypt, said in a statement that the declaration “is void under shariah.”
“We look forward
to the coming, as soon as possible, of the caliphate,” Qaradawi said, of the
form of pan-Muslim government last seen under the Ottoman Empire.
“But the
declaration issued by the Islamic State is void under Sharia and has dangerous
consequences for the Sunnis in Iraq and for the revolt in Syria,” he added.
The influential
cleric said the declaration and nomination of Baghdadi by a jihadist group
“known for its atrocities and radical views” fail to meet strict conditions
dictated by Sharia.
The title of
caliph, he said, can “only be given by the entire Muslim nation” not by a
single group.
Since last
Sunday, other leading Muslim figures have denounced the announcement by the
Islamic State, which was previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL).
A caliphate is
fundamentally a universal Islamic state ruled by a single leader with both
political and religious authority.
Many Sunnis
associate the caliphate with a golden age of Islam, but the declaration made by
the Islamic State has triggered indignation among those who see it as heresy.
Al-Azhar, the
top authority of Sunni Islam, “believes that all those who are today speaking
of an Islamic State are terrorists,” senior representative Sheikh Abbas Shuman
told AFP earlier this week.
“The Islamic
caliphate can’t be restored by force. Occupying a country and killing half of
its population... this is not an Islamic state, this is terrorism,” he said.
Rebels in Syria,
who have been battling the jihadists who have infuriated many by their
brutality, have branded the caliphate announcement as “null and void.”
Jordanian
Al-Qaeda cleric Issam Barqawi, known as Abu Mohammed Al-Maqdessi, also
denounced it, warning it will lead to more bloodshed.
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