A leading Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia has issued a scathing fatwa against Hizbullah — the latest in a series of condemnations from the usually supportive Arab world, Fox News
reported.
Sheik Abdullah bin Jabreen declares it against Muslim Sharia law to support, join, or even pray for the terror group, writing, "our advice to the Sunnis is to denounce them and shun those who join them to show their hostility to Islam and to the Muslims," the report said.
The New York Sun reports that the fatwa also condemns Iran for funding and supporting Hezbollah to further what Jabreen called its imperial ambitions.
This fatwa joins a ruling by a Kuwaiti sheikh, who harshly condemned the imperialistic aspirations of Iran through Hizbullah following the abduction of Israeli soldiers on the Lebanon border.
The surprising move by the Sudi sheikh demonstrates the controversy among cleric in the Middle East regarding the issue of supporting or opposing Hizbullah, which is a Shiite organization.
Some Sunni clerics, such as the Muslim Brotherhood members in Egypt, have declared their support of Hizbullah.
The Wahhabi faction, however, usually opposed Hizbullah's armed struggle against Israel. The faction members are well familiar with the controversy between the Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq.
'We advise Sunnis to condemn them'
As part of their mission to purify Islam from modern innovations and deviations that contradict the original doctrine of Islam, members of this Sunni Muslim movement strongly admonish habits such as admitting holy people and their graves, or decorating mosques.
The faction is considered the leading ruling voice in Saudi Arabia, although it has become a bit moderate as it is influenced by the general modernization process that the kingdom has gone through.
Jabreen ruled in his fatwa that Hizbullah members are "opposers." He added that "we advise the Sunnis to condemn them and stay away from people who join them or express their hostility towards Islam and Muslims."
"Three years ago I wouldn't have bothered to deal with this issue," Jarbeen explained, "but after al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi spoke against the Shiites, it became easier."
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