More than 150 prominent Muslim scholars from 50 countries are currently attending a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacre of Israelis and foreign nationals. At least 20 Muslim citizens of Israel were among 1,200 people murdered by Hamas terrorists and ordinary Palestinians that day. Thousands more were injured, and 251 Israelis and foreign nationals were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip, where 50 -- dead and alive -- are still held captive.
As far as Qatar's Muslim scholars are concerned, however, the war in the Gaza Strip did not start on the day Hamas launched its invasion of Israel. Rather, the war began the moment Israel fired back, and the only victims are the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, not those who were murdered, raped, beheaded and burned alive on October 7.
The conference, taking place at the Eyüp Sultan Mosque, was organized by the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), a body of Islamic theologians founded in 2004 by the late Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian scholar known as the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Qaradawi was hosted and embraced by Qatar for many years before his death.
Qaradawi, who was closely associated with the Iran-backed terror group Hamas, apparently had no problem justifying Palestinian terrorism and murdering Israeli women and children -- or, evidently, in using Muslim women to do it: "Israeli women are not like women in our society because Israeli women are militarized," he told BBC in 2004.
"I consider this type of martyrdom operation [suicide bombings] as indication of justice of Allah Almighty. Through His infinite wisdom, He has given the weak what the strong do not possess and that is the ability to turn their bodies into bombs like the Palestinians do."
Several Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain have added Qatar's IUMS to their terrorism blacklists, saying it used "Islamic rhetoric as a cover to facilitate terrorist activities."
The conference, titled "Islamic and Humanitarian Responsibility: Gaza," was organized to discuss Israel's "genocidal war" and the Islamic world's humanitarian responsibilities, according to the organizers.
The conference totally ignores Hamas's responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinians. The Muslim scholars who have spoken at the conference did not make any reference to the thousands of Israelis and foreign nationals, including children, women and the elderly, who were murdered, wounded and kidnapped by Palestinian Muslims on October 7. Needless to say, the scholars have not called on Hamas to release the Israeli hostages and accept a ceasefire that would end the war and the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, the conference has unleashed scathing criticism of Israel for daring to defend itself against Hamas's terrorism.
IUMS President Ali al-Qaradaghi, known as a key propagandist for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodogan in the Islamic world, urged Muslim and Arab nations to see Gaza's plight as their own. "Protect yourselves," he warned, arguing that Israel's "expansionist project" threatens the entire region, adding:
"This conference reaffirms that Gaza is not only a Palestinian issue; it is an issue of the entire Ummah [Islamic nation] and a just human cause that no one has the right to abandon."
Instead of condemning the Hamas-led October 7 atrocities as the worst crime against Jews since the Holocaust, Eymen Zeydan, head of the International Jerusalem Institution's Turkey branch, described Israel's war against the terror group as "one of the greatest catastrophes in modern history."
Instead of calling on Hamas to lay down its weapons and relinquish control of the Gaza Strip to spare the lives of Palestinians, the conference has emphasized that sanctions and boycotts against Israel are "a priority grounded in Sharia laws and international humanitarian principles."
For the Muslim scholars, boycotting and isolating Israel is more important than halting the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Their interpretation of Sharia laws and international humanitarian principles suggests that it is fine to sacrifice as many Palestinians as necessary for the sake of murdering Jews and destroying Israel.
The IUMS's position does not come as a surprise. Instead of urging Muslims to denounce terrorism and renounce violence, the organization, earlier this year, issued a fatwa (Islamic ruling) in which it called on all Muslims to wage Jihad (holy war) against Israel. The scholars want to see Muslims commit more massacres against Jews.
The fatwa stated 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 called to "supply the [Palestinian] 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 declared normalizing relations with the "Zionist enemy" forbidden by Sharia. It urged members of the Muslim diaspora in the US to pressure President Donald Trump to "fulfil his campaign promises of stopping the aggression and bringing peace."
Unsurprisingly, the fatwa was immediately praised by the Iranian regime, whose leaders have repeatedly pledged to eliminate Israel:
"Hojjatoleslam Haj Ali-Akbari, head of the Prayer Leaders' Policymaking Council, wrote in a letter that the contemporary history of the Islamic world has recorded in its memory the fatwas of jihads that stood as a solid barrier against the cycle of occupation and colonization of Muslim lands.
"The history of the struggles of Muslim nations in the region and the Islamic world has recorded a great fatwa against colonialists and occupiers. The issuance of jihadi and anti-colonial fatwas by great Sunni and Shiite scholars has a long history, especially in the face of occupation and colonialism in the past two centuries, when these fateful movements are clearly evident, the letter reads."
Once again, Qatar and Turkey have proven that their top priority is to promote the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates as part of the Islamists' Jihad to destroy Israel. Qatar and Turkey are the main sponsors of Hamas, whose leaders lead comfortable lives in both countries. It is time for the Trump administration to call out Qatar and Turkey for their ongoing support for Hamas. It is also time for the US to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. His work is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
