SOHR calls upon “Fatwa Council of Syria” to announce reasons and factors forcing Syrians into illegal immigration as “religiously forbidden”

Reacting to the escalating migration by Syrians who sneak out of Syria with the help of smugglers, via risky and unsafe routes, the “Fatwa Council of Syria” has issued a statement, warning against the danger of travelling to Europe via routes used for smuggling, announcing that such trips are “haram” (religiously forbidden). In the past few months, hundreds of Syrian civilians lost their lives during unsafe trips to Europe, mostly drowned in the Mediterranean sea.

 

This “Fatwa” (religious edict) comes at a time when Syrians are struggling with dreadful living conditions, stifling economic and social malaise and escalating violence and security chaos because of the war which has been rigging for over 11 years. This “Fatwa” also coincides with a looming starvation that threatens Syrians who have lost their basic livelihood and have no ability to get clean water for washing and drinking, which contributed the spread of serious epidemics and diseases, such as cholera, while the Syrian crisis has been turned into a bargaining chip used by powers which could not care less about the people of Syria.

 

Ironically, the “Fatwa Council” has not issued any statements condemning neither the reasons and factors leading to such catastrophic situations nor the ongoing war which killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrian people, forced millions others to displace, destroyed their houses: let alone the horrific massacres and attacks with chemical weapons. However, the council issued a statement to warn Syrians against such methods of migration which has become the only choice for Syrians to flee from death, killing, assassinations, hunger, kidnappings and arrests.

 

If the illegal immigration is “haram,” according to the “Fatwa Council of Syria”, then the policy of starving and impoverishing Syrian people and letting them plagued with illiteracy pollution and diseases and scores of chronic crises must be also announced as “religiously forbidden,” so that Syrians can live safely in their homeland.

 

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, would like to bring to mind that staying in Syria is “religiously forbidden,” according to the standards of adopted by the “Fatwa Council of Syria,” as the dangerous situation in Syria poses a considerable threat to the safety and lives of civilians who are exposed to be killed at every moment or die of hunger and thirst.

 

We call upon all international and UN institutions and authorities not to abandon Syrian people and let them be exploited by war lords and to find a solution of the illegal immigration and intensify their efforts to reach an entry point to breaking the deadlock on Syria’s crisis.

 

We also renew our demands to the “Fatwa Council” to focus on condemning and denouncing the killing of innocent people and using chemical weapons against them, arbitrary arrests and rape of women, instead of passing religious edicts designed only to provoking the general opinion.