In April SUSRIS highlighted, in our daily news, a story by Turki al-Saheli writing for Asharq Alawsat [Saudi Arabia: Calls to Criminalize Takfiri Fatwas] that reported on deliberations of the Senior Ulema Council:
“Saudi Arabia’s Senior Ulema Council is currently holding closed-door sessions to discuss two important issues affecting the kingdom; the financing of terrorism, and Takfiri fatwas. Last week, another closed-door session held by the Saudi Shura Council discussed calls to criminalize Takfiri fatwas that are issued from outside the official religious institute in order to put an end to the issuance of such fatwas that have been on the rise in recent years. Takfiri fatwas are fatwas or religious advisory opinions that state that a certain practice or act is haram or religiously impermissible and that anybody who takes part in such practices is not a Muslim. Sources close to one of the members of the Senior Ulema Council stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that the sessions being held by the council in Riyadh are ’secret and extraordinary,’ while another source at the Senior Ulema Council explained that the meetings, which commenced on Saturday and will end today Monday 12 April, will discuss the criminalization of the ‘Takfiri fatwas,’ and the ‘financing of terrorism.’..”
Arab News reported on May 8, 2010 [see SUSRIS May 9, 2010 Daily News] that King Abdullah in a message to Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, president of the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars addressed terrorist financing:
‘This reprehensible crime is not only as bad as terrorist deeds but also sustains terror, attempts to sabotage our land, destabilizes our security and destroys our resources and our moderate approach.”
The ruling of the Council of Supreme Ulema on these issues, which apparently received little American media attention apart from SUSRIS, was tipped to Washington Post op-ed columnist David Ignatius by senior U.S. military commanders who, he says, were impressed by the “tough condemnation of terror and the underground network that finances it” in Saudi Arabia.
Ignatius wrote today that, “Terrorism has damaged the Islamic world far more than the West, and too many Muslims have been cowed and silent. But a powerful .. denunciation of terrorism emerged last month from Saudi Arabia’s top religious leadership, known as the Council of Senior Ulema.”
He noted that the fatwa clearly defines terrorism and attacks its financing, and quotes it as saying, “The Council rules that the financing of terrorism, the inception, help or attempt to commit a terrorist act of whatever kind or dimension, is forbidden by Islamic Sharia and constitutes a punishable crime thereby; this includes gathering or providing of finance for that end.” The fatwa exempts “legitimate charity to help the poor” from this ban.
Ignatius points to Saudi sources who said King Abdullah initiated the process that led to the fatwa, by asking for a ruling on terrorist financing. His push on the issue contrasts with the royal family’s traditional wariness of challenging or offending the clerical establishment, on which its legitimacy rests.
You can read David Ignatius’ complete column here.
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