Saeed Al-Suraihi

Okaz

The Saudi prisoners in Iraq have been suffering from the miserable consequences of listening to calls for Jihad in Iraq. Today, the same people who encouraged those poor men to go to Iraq are encouraging Saudis to travel to Syria for jihad. Why do those who encourage young men to go for jihad not go themselves or send their sons to Syria? We do not see them do that.



Saudi prisoners in Iraq would not have suffered greatly had they ignored the calls for jihad. The same thing happened to Saudi young men who traveled to Afghanistan for that purpose. Unfortunately, many of those who returned to the Kingdom after jihad engaged in several terrorist activities in the Kingdom.



The cause of this misery is the fatwas (edicts) issued by ignorant scholars who do not have the slightest idea about current events and the concept of international relations or the nature of political conflicts. Such scholars put the lives of young men on the line in the name of jihad.

This group of clerics should be confronted with counter-fatwas and young men’s awareness about the false message of such scholars should be raised so that they do not fall victims to these calls for jihad.

Currently, there are many fatwas and counter-fatwas on social networking media regarding jihad in Syria. Those scholars should understand they must stop using religious texts as a pretext to support their erroneous fatwas.