Fatwa By Retired Pakistani Justice And Islamic Scholar On Pakistan's Post-9/11 Role: 'The U.S. Occupation Of Afghanistan Is Totally Against The Islamic Teachings And International Laws'

Fatwa By Retired Pakistani Justice And Islamic Scholar On Pakistan's Post-9/11 Role: 'The U.S. Occupation Of Afghanistan Is Totally Against The Islamic Teachings And International Laws'(Memri).

Given below is the text of a fatwa (Islamic decree) issued by leading Pakistani religious scholar and former justice Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani regarding Pakistan's role in the U.S.-led war on terror. 

Mufti Taqi Usmani, who was born in the northern Indian town of Deoband in 1943 in undivided India, belongs to a family of Islamic scholars in Pakistan. He has held numerous important positions in Pakistan, including serving as a judge of the Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan from 1980-1982 and as a judge of the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan from 1982-May 2002.

A fatwa is a legal opinion given in response to a question. A set of four questions were posed before Mufti Taqi Usmani by Lt.-General (retired) Shahid Aziz, a senior military general who was serving at the time of the 9/11 attacks and was considered very close to the then-military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, according to the Urdu-language daily Roznama Nai Baat, which published the text of Mufti Taqi Usmani's fatwa. According to the Urdu daily, Lt.-Gen. Aziz, before posing the four questions, described the overall situation in which Pakistan finds itself in the following words:

 "The U.S. government has been maintaining its tyrannical occupation over Afghanistan by dint of its military power and the Pakistan government is fully supporting the U.S. in this occupation. As a result of Pakistani involvement in the killings of Muslim brothers and sisters of Afghanistan, there has been terrorism in Pakistan during the past ten years, and thousands of innocent civilians have been killed in the actions taken against it, and this continues as usual." The text of the questions and Mufti Taqi Usmani's answers are given below, as translated from Urdu and titled "Mufti Taqi Usmani's Fatwa."[1]

Question 1: "In the view of Sharia, does Pakistan have the authority to support non-Muslims in their occupation of a neighboring Muslim country?"

Answer: "Not at all.

"It should be noted that former military dictator Pervez Musharraf had decided to become an ally in this war. In full obedience to the U.S., it was dictator Pervez Musharraf who provided the attacking NATO forces with the facilities and concessions which were not even asked from Pakistan. It was he who gave permission for the fighter jets to take off [from its land], along with from the Shamsi Airbase [used to launch drone attacks]. The U.S. occupation of Afghanistan is totally against the Islamic teachings and international laws. The dictator [General Musharraf] also took the obnoxious decision to become an ally in the Americans' oppressive, aggressive, and occupational steps just to protect his government and prolong his illegal rule."Read the full fatwa here.