| -Caveat Lector-
Subject: Kuwaiti MP in Support of
Official Saudi Fatwa Against Churches in Muslim Lands
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Special Dispatch-Saudi Arabia
March 24, 2006
No. 1123
Official Saudi Fatwa of July 2000 Forbids Construction
of Churches in Muslim Countries; Kuwaiti MP Concurs
To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit: http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD112306
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The website www.kalemat.org posted a fatwa issued on July
3, 2000 by The Permanent Council for Scholarly Research and Religious Legal
Judgment, an organ of the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments, forbidding the
construction of non-Muslim houses of worship in Muslim countries. The fatwa
stated that it is forbidden to allow non-Muslims to establish a foothold in the
Arabian Peninsula, to receive Saudi citizenship, or to buy property there. In
addition the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa reported that Kuwaiti MP Walid
Al-Tabatabai announced in statements earlier this winter that he was opposed to
the establishment of houses of worship for non-Muslims in Muslim
countries.
The following are excerpts from both sources:
All Religions Other Than Islam are Heresy
The Saudi fatwa reads as follows: "The Permanent
Council for Scholarly Research and Religious Legal Judgment has studied the
queries some individuals brought before the Chief Mufti... concerning the topic
of the construction of houses of worship for unbelievers in the Arabian
Peninsula, such as the construction of churches for Christians and houses of
worship for Jews and for other unbelievers and [the question of] the owners of
companies or organizations allotting a fixed place for their unbelieving workers
to perform the rites of unbelief.
"After considering the queries the Council answered as
follows:
"All religions other than Islam are heresy and error.
Any place designated for worship other than [that of] Islam is a place of heresy
and error, for it is forbidden to worship Allah in any way other than the way
that Allah has prescribed in Islam. The law of Islam (shari'a) is the final and
definitive religious law. It applies to all men and jinns and abrogates all that
came before it. This is a matter about which there is consensus.
"Those who claim that there is truth in what the Jews
say, or in what the Christians say whether he is one of them or not is
denying the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad's sunna and the consensus of the
Muslim nation... Allah said: 'The only reason I sent you was to bring good
tidings and warnings to all [Koran 34:28]'; 'Oh people, I am Allah's Messenger
to you all [Koran 7:158]'; 'Allah's religion is Islam [3:19]'; 'Whoever seeks a
religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him [3:85]'; 'The
unbelievers from among the people of the Book [i.e. Jews and Christians] and the
polytheists are in hellfire and will be [there] forever. They are the worst of
all creation... [98:6].'
"Therefore, religion necessitates the prohibition of
unbelief, and this requires the prohibition of worshiping Allah in any way other
than that of the Islamic shari'a. Included in this is the prohibition against
building houses of worship according to the abrogated religious laws, Jewish or
Christian or anything else, since these houses of worship whether they be
churches or other houses of worship are considered heretical houses of
worship, because the worship that is practiced in them is in violation of the
Islamic shari'a, which abrogates all religious law that came before it. Allah
says about the unbelievers and their deeds: 'I will turn to every deed they have
done and I will make them into dust in the wind [Koran 25:23].'
"Thus the 'ulama agreed that it is forbidden to build
heretical houses of worship such as Christian churches in a Muslim country,
and that it is forbidden for there to be two directions of prayer coexisting in
a Muslim country, and that there should be no symbol of unbelief, neither
churches nor anything else. They agreed that it is obligatory to destroy any
church or other heretical house of worship that was built after [the advent of]
Islam, and it is forbidden to oppose the ruler in the matter of its destruction,
and he must be obeyed.
"The 'ulama agreed that building heretical houses of
worship, such as churches, in the Arabian Peninsula is the most weighty of sins
and the worst of crimes, because there are reliable and explicit sayings of the
Prophet [hadith] that prohibit the existence of two religions in the Arabian
peninsula [i.e. another religion in addition to Islam], among them the Prophet's
words that were related by [Imam] Malik and others and were recorded in the
Sahihayn [the two most authoritative collections of hadith for Sunni Muslims
compiled by Al-Bukhari and by Muslim]: 'There shall not be two religions
together in the Arabian Peninsula.'
"The Arabian Peninsula is Islam's sanctuary and its
basis. It is forbidden to allow or permit unbelievers to penetrate it or to
receive citizenship there or to buy property, not to speak of building churches
for the worshipers of the cross. There is no place in the Arabian Peninsula for
two religions, but only for one the religion of Islam, sent by Allah through
Muhammad, His Prophet and Messenger. There will not be two directions of worship
there, but just one single direction the direction of the Muslims, towards the
Ka'ba in Mecca. Praise Allah who enabled the rulers of these lands to ward off
these heretical houses of worship from the pure Islamic land.
"[We turn to] Allah, to whom we complain about the
heretical houses of worship that the enemies of Islam brought, like the churches
and others, to many Muslim countries. We ask Him to protect Islam from their
cunning and deceit.
"If one allows or consents to the establishment of
heretical houses of worship, like churches, or if one allots a fixed place in a
Muslim country [for them to worship] this is the worst sort of aid to unbelief
and of bringing their rites into the open, [in defiance of what is said in Koran
5:2] 'Help one another to good deeds and fear of Heaven, and don't help one
another to sin and aggression. Fear Allah, for Allah punishes harshly.'
"Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya said: 'Whosoever thinks
that churches are Allah's houses and serve as places for His worship, or
whosoever thinks that the deeds of the Jews and the Christians are worship of
Allah and obedience to His Prophet, and whosoever likes this and permits it or
helps them [the unbelievers] to open [houses of worship] and to perform their
religion and thinks this to be proximity or obedience [to Allah] he is an
unbeliever.'
"He also said: 'Whosoever thinks that visiting dhimmis
[monotheist non-Muslims under Muslim rule] in their churches is proximity to
Allah, he is an apostate. If he didn't know that this was forbidden, he should
be so informed, and then if he persists, he is an apostate.'
"We find refuge in Allah in order not to backtrack from
the right path... Those who turned back on their tracks after the right path was
clear to them Satan seduced them and filled their hearts with false hopes
[Koran 47:25]'; 'They said to those who hated what Allah revealed: we will obey
you in some matters, but Allah knows your secrets [Koran 47:26]'; 'How will it
be when the angels take their souls and strike them on their faces and their
backsides [Koran 47:27]'; 'This is because they followed that which angered
Allah and they hated Allah's satisfaction, so he thwarts their actions [Koran
47:28]'.(1)
Kuwaiti MP: It is Forbidden to Establish Houses of
Worship for Non-Muslims in Muslim Countries
Walid Al-Tabatabai, a member of the Kuwaiti
parliament's human rights committee, stated that "the establishment of houses of
worship for non-Muslims in Kuwait is against Islamic law. This is forbidden by
consensus [of the scholars], as was stated in the Ministry of Religious
Endowment's fatwa... This does not mean that it is forbidden for non-Muslims to
perform their religious obligations. On the contrary, they should be allowed to
do so, but this needs to be in accordance with the law and with the
norms."
He added that in Kuwait today there are 20 churches,
"that is, a church for every five Kuwaiti Christians, as there aren't more than
100 of them," whereas visiting Christians are "temporary workers who will be
going back to their countries."
Al-Tabatabai added that "the human rights committee has
not discussed this issue, and therefore it has not ratified or agreed to it. If
there is someone who has agreed to it, then that is their own personal position,
and they have done so on their own authority." He emphasized that "freedom of
worship and the performance of religious obligations is permitted to everyone in
the world, but the issue of establishing houses of worship for other religions
depends on shari'a law."(2)
Endnotes:
(2) Al-Siyassa (Kuwait), December 14, 2005.
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