Resistance to the belligerent invaders is an obligation: Sheikh Kaftaro

DAMASCUS, March 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Syrian mufti Sheikh Ahmad Kaftaro, the country's top Muslim religious authority, called Thursday, March 27, for martyr operations against the U.S. and British invaders in Iraq.

"I call on Muslims to use all means possible to thwart the aggression, including martyr operations against the belligerent invaders," he said in a statement, a copy of which was faxed to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Resistance to the belligerent invaders is an obligation for all Muslims, starting with (those in) Iraq," the mufti said.

Conveying the same message, Al-Azhar delivered a statement on March 9, calling upon all Muslims for Jihad against Anglo-American invasion.

Jihad is an individual duty for all Muslims if the U.S. launches a war against Iraq. Arabs and Muslims should be on high alert to defend themselves, their doctrine and lands,” Al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy told IslamOnline.net Monday, March 10.

“They have to forget all internal differences so as not to surrender to prospective attacks,” it added.

“Most people think that war on Iraq is inevitable. According to the Islamic Shari`ah, Jihad is an individual duty in case an enemy occupies Muslims’ lands. Our Arab and Muslim nation will face new crusades that aim to deprive us of our homeland, doctrine and dignity,” the statement added.

Martyr Operations To Defend Islamic Creed

The Islamic Fiqh Council affiliated to the OIC in its fourteenth session on January 2003, issued a resolution that asserts that jihad and martyr operations done to defend the Islamic creed, dignity, freedom and the sovereignty of states is not considered terrorism but a basic form of necessary defense for legitimate rights.

Thus the oppressed peoples who are subjected to occupation have the right to seek their freedom via all means possible, the Islamic Fiqh Council clarified.

The Council stresses that martyr operations are a form of jihad, and carrying out those operations is a legitimate right that has nothing to do with terrorism or suicide.

Those operations become obligatory when they become the only way to stop the aggression of the enemy, defeat it, and grievously damage its power.