Islamic scholars to issue pro-Hamas fatwa

Source: AFP, 6-5-2006
DOHA - Islamic scholars are to meet in Doha next week to draw up a fatwa, or religious edict, obliging the Muslim faithful to help the internationally isolated Palestinian government headed by Hamas.
Influential cleric Yussef al-Qardawi said the May 10-11 meeting would help both the Palestinian people and their government, hit hard by US and EU financial siege.
Ulemas (scholars) as well as other Muslim and Palestinian leaders will "draw up a fatwa on the duty of the ummah (Muslims) and of governments" toward the Palestinians and the Hamas cabinet, Qardawi told a press conference Saturday.
The fatwa will refer to financial aid to the Palestinians as well as offering them moral support, Qardawi said.
He slammed what he called "the duality of the West, which rejects Palestinian democracy after encouraging such a democracy just because it doesn`t suit them."
"This is political hypocrisy and we reject it," he said.
Exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan al-Shalah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command leader Ahmed Jibril would also attend, Qardawi said of the Palestinian movements.
However, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas`s Fatah faction, which Hamas trounced in January`s vote, would not be attending, he said, citing "difficulties with Fatah representatives ... who mostly refuse to cooperate".