Jerusalem mufti: Muslim who sells land to Jews ‘traitor to Islam’

“Anyone who sells his land to the enemies or accepts compensation for it will commit a sin,” Jerusalem’s mufti ruled in a fatwa.

By: World Israel News Staff

The Muslim religious leader of Jerusalem has issued a decree banning the sale of property to Jews, or “enemies,” as he referred to them.

The Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, on Tuesday issued a fatwa, an Islamic religious decree, banning Muslims from “facilitating the transfer of ownership of any part of Jerusalem or the land of Palestine to the enemies,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

The fatwa, according to Palestinian sources quoted in the report, came in response to a proposed Israeli bill that eases the purchase of land by Jews in Area C of Judea and Samaria, which is under full Israeli sovereignty, as stipulated by the Oslo Accords.

The fatwa decreed that the “land of Palestine” was Waqf, an absolute religious endowment in Islamic law, and therefore cannot be sold in any way to non-Muslims.

“Anyone who sells his land to the enemies or accepts compensation for it will commit a sin,” said Hussein in his fatwa.

He also warned that anyone who violates the fatwa will be considered an infidel, an apostate and a traitor to God, Islam and his homeland, the report said.

The fatwa additionally demands that Muslims boycott anyone who violates the ruling and should therefore refuse to do business with the transgressors, marry them, attend their funerals or bury them in Muslim cemeteries.

Palestinian law also prohibits Palestinians from selling land to “any man or judicial body corporation of Israeli citizenship, living in Israel or acting on its behalf.”

Land sales to Israelis are considered treason by the Palestinians because they supposedly threaten the founding of a future state.

Palestinians who sell land to Israelis can be sentenced to death.

Area CFatwaIslamJerusalem ArabsJudea and SamariaMuhammad Hussein