CAIRO, Egypt: One of the largest Islamist political movements in the Arab world, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood strongly rejected sectarian verdicts (Fatawa) by some Wahabi Saudi clerics against supporting Hizbullah in its fight against Israeli aggression.

Some Wahabi Saudi clerics have issued religious verdicts banning support for the Lebanese Hizbullah because of their ancient prejudice.

“It is not allowed to support this Shia party, to operate under its control or to pray for their victory,” one Wahabi authority, Sheikh Abdullah bin Jabreen, said. “Our advice is to have nothing to do with them.”

Another Wahabi preacher Sheikh Nasser al-Omar tells followers that "Hizbullah is not fighting on behalf of Sunni Muslims in Palestine or elsewhere, it is a tool in the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard".

The deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Habib said. “This is not the time for it (issuing such verdicts) and this is not the right circumstance."

“This fatwa gives the impression that there is a Shia danger that threatens the region and introduces division at the level of the Arab and Muslim world.”

A statement by Muslim Brotherhood leader Muhammad Mahdi Akef referred obliquely to the Saudi verdicts, saying that some people were trying to revive old sectarian divisions.

“Some governments are trying to disguise their failure to assist the resistance and even support for the Zionist aggression and American arrogance by bringing up matters such as the differences between the Shia and the Sunni and by saying that the Lebanese resistance is working for Iran,” it said.

“This resistance (Hizbullah) does not claim it is defending the Shi’a as much as it is a national resistance and that it defends Lebanon and Lebanon alone,” Habib added.