The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) was launched on July 11, 2004 in conjunction with a visit by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi to London for a meeting of the European Council for Fatwa and Research. Qaradawi is the IUMS President while many prominent individuals tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and/or Hamas serve as IUMS Trustees including:
- Rachid Ghannouchi (leader of the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood)
- Isam al-Bashir (Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood leader)
- Jamal Badawi (U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leader)
- Basheer Nafi (Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, formerly associated with the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)
- Isaq Farhan (Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood)
- Salah Sultan (former U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, notorious antisemite)
Past lists of IUMS members have included other prominent individuals such as
- Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza)
- Mohammad Sawalha (U.K. Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas)
The IUMS has:
- Criticized French military intervention in Mali aimed at Al Qaeda
- Helped Qatar draft a law aimed at banning attacks on or offenses to religion
- Demanded that Pope apologize “just as he apologized to the Jews”
- Called for punishment of U.S. soldiers who burned Korans
In 2004, the IUMS ruled that “resisting occupation troops in Iraq is a ‘duty’ on able Muslims in and outside the war-torn country and that aiding the occupier is impermissible.”
“The IAMS ex officio underlines and underscores that helping the Iraqi people in their uphill struggle against the (US) occupation is a duty on every able Muslim in and outside Iraq,” the pan-Muslim body said in a statement Friday, November 19.
Concluding a two-day meeting in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, the Dublin-based body said this kind of jihad does not necessitate a central command to organize military operations, but willing Muslims can do it on their own.
It also urged the “noble resistance fighters” to stick to Shari`ah rules in their praiseworthy resistance.