Eurasia Press & News
On March 31, 2025, the Ijtihad [Independent Jurisprudential Reasoning] and Fatwa Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headquartered in Qatar, issued a brief ten-point fatwa about “the continuation of aggression on Gaza and violation of the ceasefire” by Israel, calling for all Muslims and Muslim countries to wage jihad against Israel.[1]
IUMS was founded in 2004 by Egyptian-born Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, an important Muslim Brotherhood (MB) ideologue who lived in Qatar and was sponsored by its regime until 2018, when Ahmad Al-Raissouni took over leadership of IUMS. As documented in multiple MEMRI reports over the years, IUMS serves as a vital arm of the Qatari regime, which it uses to spread extremist anti-Western ideology, including incitement to jihad and terrorism, in keeping with the decades-long support Qatar has provided to various terrorist groups worldwide. IUMS clerics, including the group’s current head Ali Al-Qaradaghi, are known for disseminating extremist Islamic discourse, supporting terrorist organizations, justifying terrorism and jihad against Israel and the West, and promulgating antisemitic and homophobic rhetoric.[2]
The fatwa states that “it is obligatory for every capable Muslim in the Islamic world to wage armed jihad against the occupation in Palestine,” that Arab and Islamic states must immediately intervene militarily, and that “the Zionist enemy” must be “besieged at land, on sea, and in the air,” by closing waterways and airspace in Arab and Islamic states. It further calls to “supply the resistance militarily, financially, and legally.” Announcing it obligatory to urgently form an “Islamic military alliance to protect the ummah and repel the aggressors,” the fatwa declares normalizing relations with the “Zionist enemy” forbidden by shari’a, forbids providing Israel with petroleum or natural gas, and calls to reconsider the peace agreements which some Arab states have signed with the “occupying entity.” Also obligatory is to practice “financial jihad to support our brothers in Gaza” and to open crossings into Gaza. It urges members of the Muslim diaspora in the U.S. to pressure President Donald Trump to “fulfil his campaign promises of stopping the aggression and bringing peace.”
In October 2023, Muntada Al-‘Ulama’ [The Islamic Scholars’ Forum], an international body of Islamist and Salafi clerics, issued a fatwa declaring jihad against Israel to be obligatory for all Muslims and expressing support for Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups involved in fighting the Jewish state. The first signatory was Mauritanian-born IUMS member Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hasan Ould Diddo.[3]
A IUMS delegation met with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on March 12.[4]
