Muslim Clerics, Saudi Commentators Ask: How Legitimate and Relevant Is Offensive Jihad?

Sheikh Al-Barrak: Everyone – Muslim or Infidel – Must Know That Jihad Will Continue until Judgment Day and Cannot Be Abolished, Neither By Tyranny Nor By International Agreements

On November 28, 2010, Sheikh 'Abd Al-Rahman bin Nasser Al-Barrak published an article on the website Islamlight titled "International Treaties Do Not Supersede the Law of Jihad in Islam," in response, inter alia, to the statements by Salman Al-'Odeh and Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh. He wrote that in contrast to Al-'Odeh's statements, the Koran commands Muslims to wage offensive jihad; he based his statements on Koranic verses and hadith.

He asks, referring to Koran 9:5 – "But when the sacred months expire, slay the polytheists wherever you find them; seize them, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them everywhere" – and Koran 9:29 – "Fight those who do not believe in Allah and Judgment Day, who do not hold to the true religion among those to whom were given the book, until they pay the jizya out of their own hands and are utterly subdued": "Can the doctor [i.e. Salman Al-'Odeh] state that these quotes deal with defensive jihad?"

Al-Barrak noted that it is known that the concept of offensive jihad is used by the Orientalist enemies of Islam and their ilk in order to attack Islam. He said: "Some ignoramuses and lickers of the plates of the infidels, from among those who [ostensibly] defend Islam, are now limiting the aim of jihad in Islam to defense alone, since no one can condemn the repelling of an attacker."

Al-Barrak also rejected Al-'Odeh's claim that today there is no room for wars, because of international agreements and pacts, and that if stability, security, and agreements honored by the signatories had been in place during the time of the Prophet, Islam would have welcomed them. He said that these statements mean that Islam welcomes international agreements drawn up by infidels in the framework of U.N. laws banning aggression, which included jihad. He said that making this claim is nothing but lying about Islam, since it means the abolition of jihad for the sake of Allah – which Islam demands – in favor of joining the crowds under the aegis of international law that prohibits Muslims from waging jihad.

In this context, Al-Barrak stated that Aal Al-Sheikh's statements mean that today's international pacts and agreements supersede the eternal laws of shari'a, and added that Aal Al-Sheikh believes that there is no need to teach schoolchildren about jihad at all. Al-Barrak stressed: "Everyone – Muslim or infidel – must know that jihad will continue until Judgment Day, and that [nothing] can abolish it – neither a despot's tyranny nor international agreements."

Further clarifying the concept of agreements in Islam, he noted that an agreement with Muslims always has a time limit, or is provisional upon the infidel's submission and acceptance of Muslim oversight.

He concluded by saying that conditions for agreements between Islamic and infidel countries were already in place, and are eternal, as far as Muslims are concerned; international law, he stressed, does not apply to agreements in Islam.[11]