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The Ottoman Empire - the
last Islamic Caliphate prior to the current one claimed by ISIS
leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi - was established at the end of the
thirteenth century, and was not dissolved until the early 1920's.
The last sitting Caliph to
issue a fatwa - Islamic legal ruling - was Mehmed V who ruled
from April 1909 to July 1918. Regarding the obligation of
muslims to fight against Western nations in World War I, the fatwa -
"Proclamation of a Holy War" dated November 15, 1914 -
read, in part:
Question: "Those
who, at a time when all Moslems are summoned to fight, avoid the
struggle and refuse to join in the Holy War, are they exposed to the
wrath of God, to great misfortunes, and to the deserved
punishment?"
Answer: "Yes."
In Islam, it is obligatory
for muslims to obey sharia (Islamic Law). The only legal
definition of "jihad" in sharia is "warfare to
establish the religion" and, therefore, cannot be evaded when
the requirements of the law call for it.
Mehmed V was simply stating
what all muslims should have known, and the fatwa make clear muslims
who die in battle are sure to be martyrs and go to paradise.
Nothing new today - just a
lot more muslims abiding by the sharia.
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