While Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing death and destruction as a result of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), an association of extremist Islamic theologians affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, has issued a fatwa (Islamic ruling) calling for jihad (holy war) against Israel.
The IUMS, a largely Sunni group founded in 2004, consists of some 95,000 Muslim "scholars" globally and 67 Islamic organizations. It included among its members the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, killed by Israel in an explosion last year in Iran.
These Muslim "scholars" also called for "urgent, widespread action by Muslim countries and peoples, including military action [against Israel]."
The fatwa, shared by the secretary-general of the IUMS, Ali al-Qaradaghi, emphasized the obligation of "armed jihad against the occupying entity [Israel] for every capable Muslim." This "duty," he added, "extends to all parts of the Islamic world."
The fatwa also calls for "immediate military intervention" by Arab and Islamic countries to halt Israel's military operations against the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Tunisian newspaper Al-Shorouq:
"The fatwa stressed as well the necessity of supporting the Palestinian resistance [Hamas] militarily, financially, politically and legally, and deemed that a 'religious duty.' It also called for the formation of an Islamic military alliance to defend the ummah [Muslim nation], and... prohibited any form of normalization with the occupation [Israel]."
If this is what the Muslim "scholars" have to offer the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians are in deep trouble. They are already paying a heavy price there for Hamas's jihad against Israel.
The last thing the Palestinians need are more calls from Qatar-based extremist for terrorism and jihad. If these Muslim "scholars" really want to help their Palestinian brothers, they should be calling on Hamas to release all the Israeli hostages they kidnapped, then to disarm, and then to stop pursuing the disastrous path of terrorism and jihad.
If the "scholars" really want to help the Palestinians, they should be sending them food and tents, not calling for military, financial and political support to the "resistance" (armed groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad).
Sadly, we rarely hear moderate and pragmatic Islamic voices from Qatar denouncing Hamas's October 7 massacre, jihad and terrorism.
The "scholars" leading the IUMS live safely in Qatar, not in the Gaza Strip, and they are therefore not directly affected by the war that Hamas launched.
There is no personal cost to them when they issue calls for jihad and violence from their homes and offices in Qatar or other countries around the world.
Meanwhile, as a result of Hamas waging jihad and its fantasies of obliterating Israel, many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have lost everything.
That such a call by an influential Islamic group comes from an organization based in Doha illustrates why Qatar cannot be trusted as an honest mediator in the Hamas-Israel war, started after October 7, 2023 massacre, in which Hamas-led terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis and wounded thousands, as well as kidnapping 251 people who were taken to Gaza as hostages -- 59 of whom (alive and dead) are still being held there in captivity.
Since then, Qatar's royal family -- who amusingly seem to imagine that they are doing the US a favor by hosting the largest US Air Force base in the Middle East -- have smoothly persuaded the Americans and other Westerners that they are neutral, trustworthy mediators in the Hamas-Israel war. In reality, they are doing their utmost to protect their long-term client, Hamas, and keep it in power, just as they protected their other client, the Taliban, in Afghanistan to make sure it remained in power. If the US were to transfer its air base to a real ally, such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar would probably not survive a week.
Qatar has long been providing political and financial backing to various Islamist and terrorist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Al Nusra Front, Al Shabaab, Islamic Stare (ISIS), al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Moreover, Qatar has, for the past three decades, used its Al-Jazeera television network to promote radical Islam and terrorism, to praise terrorist operations against Israel, and to broadcast anti-American propaganda.
To this day, Qatar continues to host several leaders of Hamas, even after they proudly took responsibility for the atrocities on October 7. Shortly after the October 7 invasion, Hamas leaders in Qatar, such as Khaled Mashaal, came out in support of the massacre and vowed that there would be more attacks against Israelis.
On the same day as the October 7 invasion, a video of Hamas leaders watching the coverage of their group's invasion of southern Israel on Al-Jazeera was posted on social media. The Hamas leaders also reportedly bowed their heads to the ground in appreciation. "This is a prostration of gratitude for this victory," declared the late Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader who was assassinated by Israel last year. "Allah, please bestow your support and glory on our people and nation. Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allah be praised."
In 2023, the IUMS also come out in support of the carnage. It issued a statement expressing "unprecedented support" for Hamas and its terrorism against Israel. The organization called on Islamic governments and armed groups to back up Hamas with military force as part of a "religious obligation" to wage jihad against Israel. The IUMS praised the October 7 massacre as an "effective and mandatory development of legitimate resistance" and said that Muslims have a religious duty to support their brothers and sisters "throughout all of Palestine, especially in Al-Aqsa [Mosque], Jerusalem, and Gaza."
The former head of the IUMS, the late Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was often described as the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was barred from entering the US as well as other countries, and was notable for supporting suicide bombers targeting Israelis, and encouraging violence against US troops in Iraq.
Al-Qaradaghi, the current IUMS chairman, has stated that his organization views Hamas "from the perspective of the Palestinian cause, which must remain the pre-eminent cause not just for the union, but for all Arabs, Muslims and free humanitarians of the world."
In 2017, the IUMS was banned and listed as a terrorist organization by a number of Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The countries accused the IUMS of "working to promote terrorism through the exploitation of Islamic discourse, which they use as cover to carry out various terrorist activities."
It is time for the US to understand that Qatar continues to serve as a base and platform for jihad and Islamist terrorism. Qatar is not an ally in the war on terrorism. Qatar is the predominant sponsor and leading voice that promotes Islamist terrorism. Qatar is also, perilously, the towering donor to universities in America.
To American voters, it must look as if Qatar's sham-negotiations to keep Hamas in power are being conducted by US President Donald J. Trump's envoys primarily with an eye to avoid disrupting any future real estate deals with the emirate, rather than actually to stop the Hamas-Israel war and free the hostages.
At the very least, the US might threaten to withdraw its military assets from Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Base, just to put the most minimal pressure on the Doha to stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and other questionable Islamist organizations. The US might also designate the Muslim Brotherhood and IUMS as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
As for the Palestinians, it is time for them to wake up and realize that many of their Arab and Muslim brothers are prepared to continue their jihad against Israel down to the last Palestinian.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
David Llewelyn Davies