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Islamic group declares fatwa against Hamas for corruption, abuse of Gazans

The Council will not tolerate abuse against Gazans, “whether by Israel or a Palestinian governming element,” says Grand Ayatollah Budairi, president of the Global Imams Council, in support of the fatwa.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A prominent Islamic religious group recently issued a fatwa, or condemnation, against Hamas, citing widespread corruption and the abuse of Gazans who are ruled by the terror group.

Hamas “bears responsibility for its own reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians within Gaza” and Muslims around the world are “prohibited to pray for, join, support, finance or fight on behalf of Hamas,” the Islamic Fatwa Council said in a statement explaining the ruling.

The Iraq-based council, which is composed of leading scholars from the Sunni, Shia, and Sufi streams of Islam, has previously issued fatwas against the Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram Islamic terror groups.

“As an Islamic legal body, we take note of the condition of the oppressed all over the world,” Muhammad Ali Al-Maqdisi, a cleric from the Islamic Fatwa Council, told Fox News in a video statement.

“We have seen what Gaza has been subjected to under Hamas’ rule. We have also seen the atrocities which, in our view, have been perpetrated against Palestinians — faithful and unarmed civilians — who have neither strength nor recourse. And, so, we believed it was our Islamic obligation to aid the oppressed.”

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The Islamic Fatwa Council’s decision was influenced by Whispered in Gaza, a series of testimonials from residents of the coastal enclave who spoke about abuses perpetrated by Hamas.

With their identities hidden and voices disguised, Gazans described a culture of rampant corruption, violence and intimidation targeting business owners who refused to cave to demands for bribes, activists who were jailed and tortured for speaking out against the Hamas regime, and numerous other examples of human rights abuses.

Ghaith al-Omari, a senior Palestinian affairs expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Fox News that condemnation from a religious Islamic organization could prove challenging to Hamas’ public relations efforts in the Muslim world.

“As Hamas is an organization that defines itself along religious Islamic lines, this fatwa represents a direct challenge to Hamas’ legitimacy and undermines its claim to represent Islam,” al-Omari said.

“It may not immediately impact its rule over Gaza since it maintains this rule by force. But in the longer term, such a pronouncement represents a serious challenge to Hamas’ narrative.”