Saudi grand mufti says Iraq jihad is prohibited

By: Abdulali

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia's grand mufti and Chief of the Grand Scholars’ Association has termed Jihad in Iraq as “illegal”, saying that going to Iraq under pretext of Jihad (Holy War) is ruin.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ash-Sheikh denounced the practice of deceiving youths into traveling to Iraq to join a Jihad.

Talking to the daily Okaz newspaper, Ash-Sheikh said that there was no religious basis for the departure of these men to Iraq.

“Going there is like throwing themselves into danger, and that is not correct,” he said. “Inciting young men and deceiving youths into going to Iraq is not permissible because they do not know the truth about what they are going to”.

Saudi grand mufti’s warning came after a statement by 26 Saudi religious scholars on the eve of the US-led assault on Falluja declared support for militants in Iraq and said jihad in Iraq was a religious duty.

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