This links in with Irems initial post. Apprently the news about this fatwa was quashed but because of the number of people who have endorsed it it’s back in the news.
Growing number of Muftis & Ulema endorse controversial fatwa
A growing number of Muftis and Ulema all over the country have endorsed a controversial fatwa (religious edict) that declared the military operations in South Waziristan wrongful and sinful.
Several Muftis and Ulema hailing from the nation’s capital, Islamabad, and its twin city, Rawalpindi, were the first to issue the fatwa. Subsequently, religious scholars and institutions in all the provinces started endorsing the fatwa
*According to the Islamist Urdu daily, Islam, around 500 Muftis and 1,000 Ulema have already endorsed the fatwa. Some of them are well-known and respected. Muftis are authorized by religious institutions and scholars to give fatwas on issues that are brought before them. Their decisions in many cases carry weight with the faithful. *
**However, the government and its supporters, including those in the media, have criticized the fatwa. They denounced the Muftis and Ulema for issuing the strong-worded fatwa against the country’s armed forces and termed it an unpatriotic and irresponsible act. There were reports that cases of treason were registered against the Muftis and Ulema who issued the fatwa in Rawalpindi-Islamabad and some of them could lose their jobs as Imams of mosques run by the government-controlled Auqaf department. **
Despite the bitter government response to the fatwa, Muftis and Ulema have continued to endorse the edict. According to some of the Ulema, the endorsement has come from Muftis in Jamia Ashrafia, Lahore, Nusrat-ul-Uloom, Gujranwala, Darul Uloom, Binori Town, Karachi, Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak, Darul Uloom Sarhad, Peshawar, Darul Fatawa, Kohat, Mufti Mukhtaruddin Karbogha Sharif, etc.
According to Javed Ibrahim Paracha, the former PML-N MNA from Kohat and an enthusiastic supporter of the fatwa, efforts were being made to publish the edict in the form of an advertisement in the newspapers. Already, copies of the original fatwa are being circulated in different parts of the country.
According to the fatwa, one Colonel (Retd) Mahmoodul Hasan approached Muftis and Ulema to issue an edict on the ongoing military operation in South Waziristan. Saying that the Pakistani soldiers were operating against the “mujahideen” and the people in Wana in the name of terrorism under pressure from the US and killing and arresting innocent Muslims, he asked the Muftis and Ulema to give a fatwa in the light of the teachings of Quran and Sunnah to four of his questions. First, he wanted to know it was right for the Pakistan Army to kill and capture their Muslim brothers. Second, he asked whether it was necessary for the masses and the army to obey the orders of their ruler to kill or capture innocent people. Also, whether it was proper for the Pakistan Army to take part in such activities. Third, the Muftis and Ulema were asked if the troops killed in such offensives would be martyrs or not and whether it would be right to offer their Nimaz-i-Janaza. Fourth, whether the “mujahideen” or other innocent Muslims on whom war is imposed would be martyrs or not in case they are killed.
The Muftis and Ulema of Rawalpindi-Islamabad in their reply to the first query made it clear that it was “haram” and wrong, even a major sin, for the Pakistan Army to launch military operations against the “mujahideen” and innocent Muslims in South Waziristan. The fatwa noted that such offensives in which Muslims are killed and captured whether or not it is under US pressure violated the teachings of Quran and Sunnah. “Under Shariah, Muslims are barred from killing Muslims. The Muslims should not accept the demand of non-Muslims to kill fellow Muslims even if they are harmed in the process,” according to the fatwa.
In reply to the second question, the fatwa stressed that the masses and soldiers are not bound to accept rulers’ orders that are against Shariah. It argued that the government action in Wana was violative of Shariah and the Muslims soldiers would be justified to disobey orders to launch an offensive against fellow Muslims.
According to the fatwa, soldiers who die fighting fellow Muslims in such military operations cannot be called martyrs and, therefore, it would be wrong for Muslims to lead of offer their Nimaz-i-Janaza.
In comparison, those who die as a result of such “cruel” military offensive would be martyrs because they became victims of an imposed war and were innocent.
The four-page fatwa quoted extensively from the Quran and Sunnah to support the edict. The signatures of the Muftis and Ulema who issued the fatwa are also listed on the document. They include Mufti Abdul Diyan Afalullah, Maulana Mohammad Ismail Toru, Mufti Dost Mohammad, Mufti Mohammad Sharif Hazarvi, Qazi Abdur Rasheed, Mufti Mohammad Abdullah, Mufti Zikriya, Maulana Abdul Hakim, Mufti Mohammad Yunis, Maulana Mohammad Osama, Mufti Abdi Shibli, Mufti Mohammad Talha, Mufti Mohammad Naeem, Mufti Mohammad Afaq and Mufti Abdur Rasheed.
Defending the fatwa, Mufti Saifullah of the Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak, said Muftis and Ulema are bound to issue a fatwa if they are approached because refusing to do so would be hiding knowledge and allowing the people to go astray. When told that certain Ulema have criticized the fatwa, he said those who issued and endorsed it were the most important and respected Muftis and religious scholars. When reminded that the fatwa didn’t stop some Ulema and a large number of the faithful from performing the Nimaz-i-Janaza of the soldiers and militiamen killed in the South Waziristan military operation, Mufti Saifullah said it was another matter and it cannot reduce the importance and strength of the fatwa. “Didn’t these mujahideen whom we had trained and promoted stop the Soviet Union from reaching the warm waters of the Arabian Sea by waging jehad in Afghanistan? If the US is not labelling them as terrorists and pressuring our army to kill them, it cannot affect our interpretation of Shariah and our understanding of Quran and Sunnah,” he argued.