A Gaza-based radical leader says it is permissible to kill Jewish and Christian civilians while carrying out jihad, according to a document translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Abu Walid Al-Maqdisi, leader of the Jama’at Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad organization, was asked about Islam’s position on killing innocent civilians during “martyrdom operations” such as the 9/11 attacks. He replied with a fatwa stating that although Islam prohibits the killing of innocents, Jews and Christians may be attacked because they are “aggressive combatants.”
Even if some of the Jews and Christians in these countries may actually be innocent, Muslim scholars “have ruled that, in the case of a surprise attack, it is permissible to kill all of them” including innocent bystanders, he declared.
Nor should jihadists refrain from carrying out attacks for fear of accidentally harming Muslims “because this would mean stopping the jihad,” Maqdisi ruled. Since “most of the infidel countries that are fighting Islam have some Muslims living in them,” jihad cannot be halted for the protection of co-religionists residing in those states.
Read the full MEMRI translation here.