Jihadist Cleric Calls Sabotaging Western Economies a Religious Duty for Muslims

A prominent online Jihadist cleric has officially decreed in a "fatwa" -- a statement laying out an official religious duty -- that it is the obligation of all Muslims to join in on riots against '"Crusader states" such as those in the U.K. as a means of waging Jihad.

SITE Intelligence* reported on the fatwa found on the Jihadist website of cleric Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, called "The Pulpit of Tawhid and Jihad."

The fatwa was posted on Abu Muhammad's website on August 16, 2011, and was passed around to other jihadist forums on Tuesday.

In the question and answer section of Abu Muhammad's website, an unknown individual requested guidance from the website's Shariah Committee regarding participation in the U.K. riots as a means to damage enemy states.

SITE captured the response from cleric Abu Mundhir al-Shanqiti as follows:

"Every Muslim should participate and contribute in sabotaging the economies of the Crusader states, whether this is through economic boycott or by targeting their property with vandalism and arson."

This online Fatwa appears to be part of a growing movement in the cyber realm calling for the forces of Jihad to join with leftist unrest as means of weakening and eventually overthrowing western democracies. SITE has previously reported on calls from Jihadists for propaganda support of the riots using social media, and even disseminating bomb-making instructions to rioters.

In this instance, however, the fatwa calls for direct physical participation in the riots for Muslims to wage Jihad, which goes a step beyond what has been reported before in online Jihadist chatter.

Order has been restored in the U.K. for now. But riots could spark again any day, and if Sheikh Maqdisi has his way,  the next time police could find themselves facing off against left-wing radicals arm-in-arm with Jihadists.

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