On March 31, the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headquartered in Qatar and comprising 95,000 Muslim scholars across 67 Islamic organizations, issued a ten-point fatwa calling for global jihad against Israel. And the authors of the fatwa were not referring to some vague spiritual struggle – we’re talking about good old fashioned jihad.
The fatwa states that “it is obligatory for every capable Muslim in the Islamic world to wage armed jihad against the occupation in Palestine.” It calls on Arab and Islamic states to immediately intervene militarily against Israel, demands besieging the “Zionist enemy” by land, sea, and air, and declares that normalizing relations with Israel is “forbidden by Sharia law.” The ruling even calls for reconsidering any peace agreements Arab states have signed with the Jewish state.
While similar rhetoric has been heard for decades, what makes this worth noting isn’t the fatwa itself, but rather the pushback it has received from influential voices within the Muslim world.
In the United Arab Emirates, prominent public intellectual and Jerusalem Post columnist Salem Alketbi published a scathing critique in Arabic on Elaf.com, a popular Arab news site. He labeled the IUMS fatwa a “serious security threat” that would likely inspire extremist attacks and strengthen the harmful “Islam against the West” narrative.
Alketbi reminded readers that the UAE had already designated the IUMS as a terrorist organization back in 2014 – alongside Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bahrain – due to its ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. He explicitly called on Western governments, particularly the United States, to follow suit. Of course, the Emiratis have been the most pro-Western of all Arab societies, consistently calling out the Muslim Brotherhood and its many Jihadist offshoots, including Hamas. What is truly worth noting is that Alketbi was not alone.
The Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Nazir Ayyad, emphatically dismissed the fatwa, declaring that “no individual group or entity has the right to issue fatwas on such delicate and critical matters in violation of Sharia principles.” He emphasized that declaring jihad is “the prerogative of legitimate state authorities, not unofficial religious bodies,” and condemned the fatwa as an “irresponsible act” that endangers regional stability.
The noteworthy pushback
WHAT MAKES this pushback so noteworthy is that Egypt’s Sunni clerical class has a long history of spewing radical anti-Israel rhetoric. Egypt is home to 100 million Muslims and to Al-Azhar University, widely considered the most prestigious and authoritative Islamic academic institution in the Sunni world, and of which Ayyad is a graduate. In fact, it is only with Al-Azhar’s blessing that Ayyad was chosen as mufti.
Despite Egypt’s critical stance toward Israel during the current conflict and its large pro-Muslim Brotherhood population, its highest religious authority rejected the fatwa outright.
This tension reveals a deeper division unfolding across the Muslim world. On one side stands what we might call the “jihadist camp,” represented by Qatar, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates. To wit, just days ago, Jabal al-Harmi, editor-in-chief of Qatar’s state newspaper Al-Sharq, posted on X/Twitter that “the hour of judgment will not come until we fight the Jews and kill them” – a call for genocide of the Jews that paraphrases a hadith cited in Hamas’s founding charter.
On the other side are nations increasingly prioritizing stability and engagement with the West: the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and to some extent, Egypt and Jordan. Just days ago, Jordan announced that it arrested 16 Muslim Brotherhood members who had established a rocket and drone factory for planning terrorist attacks. With the Brotherhood growing in influence locally, the fact that the Jordanian authorities chose to publicize this arrest sends a clear message.
This fatwa and its reception point to what may be a significant moment of reckoning within the Muslim world. I am in no way suggesting that the Mufti of Egypt has suddenly become a moderate who is favorable to Israel and the West. Whatever the motive, the fact that respected Sunni religious scholars and political leaders are openly challenging the Jihadist forces that have dominated discourse for decades is a welcome development.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the new government is openly challenging Hezbollah and demanding that the group disarm, while Gazans are protesting Hamas in the streets. Of course, neither the Lebanese nor the Gazans have suddenly become Zionists, but like the mufti of Egypt, more and more of the Arab world is rejecting jihad against Israel as a way forward.
The battle lines are being drawn within the Islamic world. The fundamental question at stake is whether Muslim-majority nations will continue pursuing jihad against Israel and hostility toward the West, or embrace coexistence and economic integration.
Those who preach peace and coexistence, whether for ideological or pragmatic reasons, are in direct confrontation with those who preach jihad and destruction. And the stakes could not be higher. This internal struggle in the Islamic world may well determine the future of the entire region.
The writer is the director of Israel365action.com and co-host of the Shoulder to Shoulder podcast.