“Those issuing the fatwa should also depend on experts on International Law and governance to portray the real situation in the country concerned,” Abdel-Fatah

By Subhi Mejahid & Alaa Abul Eneen, IOL CorrespondentS

CAIRO, August 26 (IslamOnline.net) – Islam’s most revered authority of Al-Azhar issued a fatwa banning Arab countries from dealing with the Iraqi Governing Council, saying the U.S.-backed body is “illegitimate”.

“The council lacks religious and secular legitimacy, as it had been imposed on the Iraqis under the power of occupation and does not conform to Islam’s established principle of shura (counseling),” read the fatwa a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net.

The fatwa, dated August 19, called on Arab or Islamic countries not to give support to the interim body – whose 25 members were selected by the U.S. occupation forces in July 2003.

It pressed the need for setting an legitimate Islamic government at the helm of the country to be chosen by the Iraqis.

“Iraq is an Islamic country whose government should be legitimate and set up in accordance with the principle of Shura,” read the religious decree.

On August 11, Jordan’s Islamic Labor Front (ILF), the political wing of Muslim Brotherhood, issued a similar edict calling on Muslims not to join the council.

The calls provoked the ire of the council’s Islamic member Slaheddin Mohamed Bahaeddin, who said that situation on the ground should be taken into consideration and “such political issues as Iraq should not be tackled through fatwas and exporting them”. 

Egyptian Political analyst Seifeddin Abdel-Fatah said that a rather religious party independent from the government should have issued the decree to avert any “suspicions of political inconstancy”.

“Those issuing the fatwa should also depend on experts on International Law and governance to portray the real situation in the country concerned,” Abdel-Fatah told IOL.

He, however, believed the Iraqi Governing Council is “nothing but a puppet into the hands of Americans, since U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer still can veto any of its decisions”.

Timing

The issue of the fatwa by the Cairo-based Al-Azhar’s raised speculations, as it is in line with official stance of Egypt and the Arab League and comes at a time delegates of the council are now on a tour of the region.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher had said that the U.S.-handpicked  body does not represent "the legitimate authority" in Iraq, and the Arab League rejected to allow its members to attend its meetings until a government is established first in the power-vacuumed country.

Observers said that Arab countries fear the recognition of the council could appear to be giving it a status of a full-fledged government and undermine their efforts to pressure the U.S. and British forces into ending their occupation now in its fifth month and turn over power into the hands of Iraqis.

The council delegates led by its rotating president Ibrahim Jaafari met with a number of Egyptian officials on Monday, August 25. But Cairo insisted that the political figures are received in their personal capacity or as Iraqi citizens.

On August 14, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution that "welcomed" the establishment of the council, but stopped short of formally "endorsing" it due to a "semantic battle" between the council's five permanent member states.

The council is an interim body with a rotating presidency. Its 25 members are drawn from across Iraq's political, ethnic and religious groups, and its actions can be vetoed by Iraq's U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer.

Syrian U.N. Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe, the council's lone Arab member, had argued that only the Iraqi people could judge their government and it was not the Security Council's role to welcome the U.S.-appointed Governing Council.

The 25-member council opened its inaugural session on July 13 by declaring April 9, the day U.S.-led forces rolled into Baghdad, a national holiday in its first act as a ruling body.