The General Iftaa` Department Warns Against Attacks on Religious Fundamentals

The General Iftaa` Department affirms its firm stand against extremism, terrorism, and violence committed in the name of religion, and its commitment to exposing the ideas of extremists and refuting their false claims. It does so on the basis of the tolerant Islamic creed and the rulings of the upright religion of Islam, which rejects violence and extremism and calls for tolerance, moderation, and balance. At the same time, it warns against attempts to exploit the circumstances the Muslim Ummah is going through in confronting extremism and violence in order to attack Islam, or to assail religious figures, religious institutions, and the faculties of Sharīʿah. Such conduct inflames feelings, stirs up fitnah (strife), and creates a fertile environment for extremist ideas and violent practices. Indeed, this behavior is itself extremism in the opposite direction, and it leads only to strife. As the saying goes: “Strife is asleep; may Allah curse whoever wakes it.”

The General Iftaa` Department also affirms that it, together with all the religious institutions of this blessed country, has been and remains a safety valve in our beloved homeland. It represents a moderate religious authority that has been able to present the true image of Islam, free of extremism, violence, and terrorism, and so has formed an impregnable barrier against the attempts of those who go to excess (ghulāh) to undermine the principles and values of the upright Islamic religion. The Department, along with the religious institutions and the Sharīʿah faculties in Jordan, has been a fundamental pillar of a society that has stayed united and has not drifted into chaos or extremist and terrorist ideas.

The General Iftaa` Department has charted a course in harmony with the Amman Message, the message of tolerant Islam launched by His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein (may Allah protect and keep him). It calls for defending Islam and showing its radiant image, and for answering the doubts raised by Islam’s enemies in a sound, scholarly way, without weakness or emotional reaction. Hope rests on the scholars of our Ummah to illuminate the minds of our young generations, the adornment of our present and the strength of our future, with the truth of Islam and its great values. This will guard them against sliding into paths of ignorance, corruption, closed-mindedness, and subservience, light their way with tolerance, moderation, the middle way, and goodness, and keep them from the pitfalls of extremism and rigid zeal that destroy both spirit and body.

We ask Allah the Exalted to unite the Muslims, to join their hearts together, and to protect our country from evils and strife. And all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.