Sacrificing Afghan Muslims for the Maṣlaḥa of American Muslims: The Story of a Post-9/11 Fatwā Issued for American Muslim Soldiers and Its Critiques

Authors : Tuğrul Kütükcü, Hadi Ensar Ceylan

Pages : 564-609

Doi:10.14395/hid.1755477

View : 475 | Download : 740

Publication Date : 2025-12-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article examines the profound jurisprudential and ethical crisis that American Muslim soldiers faced following the 9/11 attacks, particularly in relation to their deployment in the war initiated by the United States against Afghanistan and its Muslim population. At the center of this crisis, which emerged amid a climate of heightened fear, suspicion, and Islamophobia in the U.S., lies a highly controversial collective fatwā issued by prominent Muslim scholars and intellectuals permitting American Muslim soldiers to participate in military operations against fellow Muslims. Positioned at the intersection of fiqh, nation-state authority, and identity politics, the fatwā serves as a revealing case study for exploring the tensions between religious loyalty and national allegiance in the modern era. While prior studies have addressed this collective fatwā, they tend to focus narrowly on the text itself and overlook broader historical, sociopolitical, and intellectual dimensions. In contrast, this article takes a holistic approach by situating the collective fatwā within the wider context of American Muslims’ integration into the U.S. military, the first wave of post-9/11 fatwās concerning Muslim soldiers, the background and motivations behind the fatwā, as well as subsequent retractions and the intense public and scholarly debates that followed it. Unlike earlier works, this study draws on a wide range of sources—including academic literature, television broadcasts, opinion columns, digital media, and live fatwā platforms—to offer a deeper and more multifaceted analysis of this pivotal moment in contemporary Islamic legal discourse. Addressing the mounting anxiety among American Muslims in the post-9/11 era regarding the tensions between their religious and civic obligations, the article examines how legal concepts such as maṣlaḥa (public interest) and ḍarūra (necessity) were employed to justify participation in a war that entailed the killing of Muslims, analyzing the jurisprudential principles invoked to legitimize this usage and exploring how such reasoning fits within the broader framework of the Islamic legal tradition. The study reconstructs the decision-making process and rhetorical framing involved in issuing this fatwā. It also traces the backlash the fatwā generated—not only from U.S. military authorities, but also from a broad spectrum of Muslim voices, including Wasaṭī, Salafī, and Egyptian Islamist groups, as well as intellectuals, activists, and segments of the general Muslim public. These reactions reflected widespread discomfort with the fatwā’s perceived alignment with U.S. political objectives and its implications for the boundaries of Islamic authority, loyalty, and identity. Fundamentally, this article argues that the fatwā represents more than a legal ruling: it signifies a moment of moral rupture in the global Islamic discourse. By authorizing the sacrifice of Afghan Muslims on the grounds of maṣlaḥa and ḍarūra for American Muslims, the fatwā reveals the intersection of theological principles, political pragmatism, and conflicting loyalties. Building on this analysis, the article further contends that the fatwā exemplifies the subordination of religious loyalty to the imperatives of the modern nation-state, thus decisively reshaping transnational Muslim identity. In this light, the criticisms directed at the fatwā reflect a broader effort to reassess the relationship between modern Islamic thought and the nation-state. Consequently, the case vividly illustrates how the notion of the ummah has been surpassed and eroded in the face of the challenges posed by modernity, and how Muslim subjectivity has been reshaped within a nation-state-centered paradigm.
Keywords : Fıkıh, 11 Eylül, Amerikalı Müslüman Askerler, Fetva, Dinî Aidiyet, Ulusal Bağlılık, Modern Fıkhî Söylem

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