Saudi Arabia’s senior clerical leadership has issued a new fatwa, or legal ruling, declaring terrorism a “heinous crime” under Shariah law — part of an intensifying campaign by the conservative kingdom to undermine the legitimacy of Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria — and to discourage support for the extremists.
“Terrorism is contrary to the purposes of the great religion of Islam which came as a mercy to the world ... and to ensure the system of worldly coexistence,” said the 21-strong Council of Senior Scholars, according to the Saudi Press Agency. “Terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, which is innocent of this deviant ideology ... [terrorism] is nothing more than corruption and criminality rejected by Islamic Shariah law and common sense.”
Any Muslim who thinks that jihad means joining a terrorist group “is ignorant and has gone astray,” the clerics said on Wednesday.
Diplomats said that Saudi King Abdullah had been urging the council — the country’s loyal religious establishment — to move faster to condemn terrorism and blunt the appeal of the Islamic State, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, after pledges by Saudi Arabia and nine other Arab states at a Jeddah conference last week with the US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Saudi Minister of the Interior Prince Mohammed bin Nayef is described in Riyadh as the driving force behind a strategy in which internal security and regional policy is being more effectively coordinated.
The Saudis have signed up to use “any means necessary” to defeat the IS with the rest of the US-led coalition. Western officials have said it has offered to take part in military action, but it is more likely to play a useful role stopping the flow of funds and volunteers to the jihadi group. Saudis make up the second-largest contingent of foreign Arabs fighting with the IS.
The influence of the Sunni religious scholars is important, though some indulge in the anti-Shiite sectarianism that is one of the hallmarks of a bitter conflict that is dividing the Middle East.
The Saudis have been stung by criticism that they back IS, though analysts say that is a misreading of their disorganized financial and material support for hardline Islamists fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Still, some of those they supported did morph over time into al-Qaeda-linked groups and IS.
Having in effect defeated al-Qaeda in a concerted anti-terrorist campaign in 2004, the government fears the consequences of fighters returning from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq and the enthusiasm they command at home. Even Saudis who oppose IS for its brutality see it as a successful Sunni fight against Shiite oppression, especially in Iraq.
The extent of Saudi alarm about the jihadi group has been clear for months. In February, the king ordered prison terms for people supporting extremist organizations or travelling abroad to fight.
In recent weeks alleged terrorist supporters have been rounded up regularly. Early this month, the interior ministry announced the arrest of 88 people, days after an imam was jailed for glorifying al-Qaeda and the IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The kingdom’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al ash-Sheikh, has said that under Shariah law terrorists merit the punishment of execution followed by the public display of the body as a deterrent.
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