RIYADH, November 6 (IslamOnline.net) - A cohort of prominent Saudi scholars have defended resistance against the occupation forces in Iraq as a legitimate right, prohibiting cooperation with the occupiers and collaboration against resistance groups.

"Resistance is a legitimate right and the Islamic Shariaa obliges the people of Iraq to defend themselves, their honor, their land, their oil and their future against the colonialist alliance as they did in the past against the British colonialism."

The signatories, including Safar Al-Hawali, Nasser Al-Omar, Salman Al-Oadah, Al-Sharif Hatem Al-Awni, Awad Al-Qarni and Saud Al-Fenesan, said the "occupiers are undoubtedly warring aggressors that religions call to fight against until they withdraw defeated ... just as human laws recognize the people's right to fight."

The Saudi scholars underlined that a Muslim is prohibited from harming resistance fighters or tipping others who could hurt them.

They also asserted that Muslims are forbidden from assisting or supporting the military operations of the occupation forces.

"Any support given to military operations conducted by occupation forces is illegitimate because it means supporting sin and aggression."

The Iraqi resistance has every right to kidnap collaborators with the US-led occupation forces but should not kill them rather treat them as prisoners of war, a leading Iraqi Sunni scholar said.

"Iraq is an occupied country and Iraqis are entitled to resist this ugly occupation no matter what the means is…It makes sense then to target collaborators," Muthana Harith Al-Dari, spokesman for the respected Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), told Al-Quds Press news agency on Sunday, September 26.

The prominent Saudi scholars reiterated that resistance attacks must not target fellow Muslims and civilians from countries that did not commit troops to the US-led occupation forces.

They stressed it would serve "the best interests of Islam and Muslims in Iraq and worldwide" to spare those people who work in humanitarian, media and other missions that do not support the occupation.

The International Association for Muslim Scholars (IAMS) vigorously denounced on Sunday, September 26, the kidnapping and killing of civilians as an aggression against others, calling particularly for the swift release of all civilians taken hostage in Iraq.

Two Italian hostages freed in Iraq have vehemently defended the Iraqi people’s right to resist the US-led occupation forces until liberating their homeland.

The Saudi scholars underlined the need to preserve Iraq’s unity and avoid internal clashes.

"Internal fighting would only serve the interests of Jews sneaking into the war-torn country as well as the occupation forces that work on inciting divisions among the Iraqis to consolidate their presence in the country."

They accused "foreign hands" of inciting sectarian divisions in Iraq and trying to drive a wedge between all Iraqi sects; Shiites and Sunnis, Kurds and Arabs.

The eminent scholars called on all Muslims worldwide to offer assistance to rebuild chaos-marred Iraq.

They further urged Islamic charities to undertake a humanitarian role in the war-torn country to alleviate the backbreaking burdens of the Iraqi people, suffering under the yoke of the US occupation.