Muslim savants at odds over Hamas

A war of words has erupted between three of the Arab world's top Muslim scholars over the Hamas and Islamic Jihad suicide bombings which killed 25 Israelis last weekend.

The controversy was sparked when Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the rector of Cairo's Azhar university, said that Islamic canon law rejects "all attacks on civilians, whatever community or state is responsible for that attack". The rector of al-Azhar is a leading source of fatwa, or juridical rulings, for the orthodox Sunni Muslim world.

This statement was bolstered by a similar one from a senior scholar at the Grand Mosque at Mecca, Islam's holiest site, Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Subail. He asserted: "Muslims must safeguard the lives, honour and property of non-Muslims with whom they have concluded peace agreements", as is the case of Palestinians with Israelis.

The Qatar-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Yusif al-Qaradawi, retorted by demanding: "How can the head of al-Azhar condemn holy warriors [mujahideen] who fight against aggressors? Has fighting colonisers become a criminal and terrorist act for some sheikhs?"

The independent Egyptian-born scholar, who made his populist reputation on the Qatari-based Jazeera TV channel, was himself bitterly attacked by clerical opponents of the US campaign against Afghanistan when he approved what was called the "Washington fatwa".

This ruling held that the perpetrators of the attacks on the US, "as well as those who aid and abet them must be brought to justice in an impartial court". Therefore, Muslim soldiers in the US forces should participate in the war effort.