Muslim Majorities Protection: Scholarly and Institutional Positions

Summary

Muslim scholars and Islamic institutions have issued repeated declarations and fatwas asserting that terrorism has no basis in Islam, while analysts question how far these texts change conditions on the ground.

What it argues

1. Amman Message consensus

   King Abdullah II convened 200 scholars from 50 countries in 2005, who recognised all eight Sunni, Shia and Ibadi legal schools as valid. The gathering forbade declaring fellow Muslims apostates (takfir) and set preconditions for issuing fatwas. Over 500 scholars worldwide endorsed it, and the OIC summit in Mecca adopted it in December 2005. The declaration seeks a unified religious basis across Muslim schools that denies legitimacy to extremist excommunication rulings.

2. OIC human rights body

   The OIC-IPHRC, an organ of the 57-state Organization of Islamic Cooperation, says it tracks rights issues affecting Muslim communities, including those in non-member states. It has condemned Houthi attacks on civilian airports and infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, calling for international accountability. An OIC institutional body treats both Muslim-community protection and intra-Muslim attacks as human-rights concerns.

3. Limits of declarations

   The International Crisis Group said the Amman Message targeted elites and lacked popular legitimacy inside Jordan. Islamica editor Suhail Nakhouda said the message bore no relation to Jordanians' daily economic hardship. Commentators on the Marrakesh Declaration called for consistent follow-through on its stated principles. Scholars and commentators say such consensus texts carry religious weight but have had limited practical effect.

4. Cairo Declaration's rights framework

   The 1990 OIC declaration, signed by 45 states and revised in 2020, sets out an Islamic perspective on human rights. It declares the preservation of human life a duty prescribed by Sharia and guarantees presumption of innocence and protection from arbitrary arrest and torture. The 1990 text named Sharia as its sole source; the 2020 revision dropped that explicit reference. OIC states frame core protections for Muslims as both a human-rights guarantee and a religious duty.

5. Criticism of the Cairo text

   The International Commission of Jurists and rights groups said subjecting all rights to Sharia limits freedom of expression and religion. Critics noted Article 19 restricts crimes and punishments to those set by Sharia, which permits corporal and capital punishment. Rights bodies dispute whether the declaration's Sharia-based limits are compatible with guaranteed rights.

6. Fatwas against terrorism

   Scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri's 2010 fatwa declared suicide bombers "destined for hell" and said terrorism has no justification in Islamic teaching. The UK's Quilliam Foundation called it the most comprehensive theological refutation of extremism to date. In 2017, 70 clerics from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia issued a joint fatwa stating violence and terrorism cannot be associated with Islam. Senior Muslim scholars have used formal religious rulings to declare terrorism theologically illegitimate.

7. Muslim leaders and 'othering'

   Research cited by The Conversation says Muslim leaders face a double bind after attacks: blamed as complicit, or pitied as victims unable to resolve their own affairs. Both responses, the research argues, reinforce Muslims' treatment as an "other" in wider society. Sri Lankan Muslim party leader Rauff Hakeem warned that overzealous crackdowns risk deepening Muslims' sense of marginalisation. Scholars argue that condemnation or victimhood framing alone does not change how Muslim communities are perceived.

8. Community-based response

   A study of Muslim leaders in Boston after the 2013 Marathon bombing found they moved beyond condemnation to joint mourning and counselling with other affected communities. They went on to join campaigns on illegal guns, healthcare access and homelessness, which local press credited with changing coverage of the Muslim community. The Minhaj-ul-Quran movement, founded in Pakistan in 1980, works globally to promote peace and interfaith dialogue. Researchers argue sustained community engagement, not condemnation alone, helps shift how Muslim identity is seen.