Salafist scholars back UAE's reconciliation with Israel

A number of Salafist clerics said reconciliation between the United Arab Emirates and Israel was a permissible matter in the Islamic religion.

Salafist cleric Wassim Youssef ran a number of tweets in which he highlighted the views of old and contemporary scholars on the same issue.

A large number of scholars, he said, sanctioned reconciliation with Israel, believing this would preserve peace between nations.

On August 22, Youssef ran a tweet in which he congratulated Emirates for signing a peace deal with Israel.

He said some contemporary scholars also permitted reconciliation with Israel, including Saudi scholar Ibn Baz who said reconciliation with Jews would bring about security and peace.

Ibn Baz cited situations where Prophet Muhammad reconciled with Jews.

He even believed that peace and reconciliation were political issues that have to be decided by each state independently and in the light of its own interests.

"Each country has its own interests," Ibn Baz said. "If this state believes that reconciliation with Jews will serve the interests of Muslims in it, then it can do this."

He added that countries can also boycott the Jews according to the same rule.

Ibn Baz considered reconciliation with Jews as a kind of truce.

However, he said this reconciliation, especially in Palestine, does not give Jews the right to own the land they use.

They can own this land temporarily until the end of the reconciliation, he said.

Ibn Baz served as the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia for seven years as of 1993. He also headed the Senior Islamic Scholars Authority.

Social media users also shared an audio by Sheikh Ibn Uthaimeen on reconciliation with Israel.

In the audio, Ibn Uthaimeen says some of those criticizing reconciliation with Israel are far away from the correct teachings of the Islamic religion.