In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Dear brother Riyadh, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you place in us, and we implore Allah Almighty to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake.

Let us stress that Islam does not call for violence; rather it abhors all forms of violence and terrorism, whether against Muslims or non-Muslims. Islam, moreover, calls for peace, cooperation, and maintaining justice, and provides for the happiness and welfare of humanity as a whole. This fact is declared in the Qur'an when Allah says: "Allah commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and rebellion: He instructs you, that ye may receive admonition." (An-Nahl: 90)

Islam makes it obligatory upon Muslims to stand by the oppressed regardless of their race, color, religion or affiliation and say NO to the oppressor and ask him to respond to the voice of reason and justice.

Bearing all this in mind, the Islamic Research Academy at Al-Azhar has issued a statement explaining its view of the prospective war on Iraq and calling upon Muslims to unify their efforts and join forces in facing this illegitimate and aggressive war. In its statement Al-Azhar declares:

"The Islamic Research Academy has studied the serious events occurring in our Arab and Islamic World and the signs of evil and destruction in our present world. They are a result of power's mania that disregards all values, norms and international laws for which humanity has striven, sacrificed lives and wealth, and withstood pain in order to declare and guarantee them due respect.

The Academy has discussed these events, considering the signs of destruction and evils surrounding the Arab and Islamic World, which are represented by the military troops armed with the most powerful and dangerous weapons of destruction.

Al-Azhar's Academy has realized that our Arab and Islamic ummah (nation) and even our religious belief (Islam) are undoubtedly the main goal of these military troops, whose targets will be millions of the members of our ummah as well as our belief, sacred places and all sources of power and wealth that Arabs and Muslims possess. The first stage to achieve these goals is to attack Iraq and occupy its land and seize its abundant reserve of oil wealth.

The Academy has also realized that the persistence to attack Iraq is, no doubt, just a beginning to be followed by other attacks targeting the rest of the Arab countries. The anti-Arab and anti-Islam powers have declared that after grabbing hold of Iraq, they will divide and arrange positions in the Arab region in a way that achieves American and Israeli interests and put an end to the Palestinian resistance.

In light of all the above-mentioned circumstances, Al-Azhar's Academy issues to all the powers in the civilized world and the peace-loving forces as well as our Arab and Islamic ummah the following declaration:

First, the Academy appreciates and hails the countries that condemned attacking Iraq and rejected the prospective war for their stances and diplomatic striving in the United Nations and UN Security Council to stop war.

Second, the Academy welcomes and stresses the importance of the stands of people all over the world and in America, particularly those who declared their rejection of war and called for resorting to peaceful means to solve the crisis under the umbrella of International Law and the Security Council.

Third, the Academy hails and backs the resolution of the Islamic Summit, which refused attacking Iraq and stressed the necessity of resorting to peaceful means in solving the crisis, considering this as a permanent declaration of all Arabs and Muslims, stressing their unanimous refusal of attacking Iraq.

In light of all the current events, most people think that attacking Iraq is inevitable. According to Islamic Shari`ah, jihad becomes an individual duty (fard `ayn) upon all Muslims if the enemy occupies a Muslim land. Our Arab and Muslim ummah will face a new inhumane campaign that aims to deprive us of our land, belief, honor, and dignity.

Accordingly, the Islamic Research Academy at Al-Azhar calls upon all Arabs and Muslims all over the world to be on high alert to defend themselves, their belief and lands. They should all hold fast to their religion, not separate, and forget all their internal differences. The Academy calls upon all Arabs and Muslims not to surrender to prospective attacks, as Allah has guaranteed to render His religion victorious. Finally, the Academy reminds (Muslims) of Allah's saying: "Allah will certainly aid those who aid His (Cause). Lo! Allah is Strong, Almighty." (Al-Hajj: 40)"