WASHINGTON – Prominent Muslim scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi refuted a claim by an American-Yemeni imam that the shooting tragedy at Fort Hood military base was an act of Jihad against the enemies of Islam.

"It is a very serious issue for any person to say Islam says this. I have a very fundamental disagreement with this," Dr. Badawi, who teaches in Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, told IslamOnline.net.

Imam Anwar al-Aulaqi claimed in an interview with the Washington Post on Monday, November 16, that Foort Hood attack was an act of Jihad against the enemies of Islam.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim army psychiatrist, is the sole suspect in last week’s shooting spree at Fort Hood army base in Texas which killed 13 soldiers and wounded more than 30 others.

Aulaqi, who is being accused by the media of instigating Hasan, said the deceased where soldiers in a military base involved in fighting Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and not civilians, and according to him, killing them was justified.

Professor Badawi refuted the argument, citing the Noble Qur’an and the Sunna of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

"The Qur’an and Sunna allow the use of force only as a last resort and only in two cases; to resist oppression or in defense against aggression," he explains.

"You don’t just sneak and attack without declaration. This is not in accordance with Islamic ethics."

Badawi insisted that the place where the shooting took place was not by any means "a battle field".

The Fort Hood attack drew immediate condemnation from all leading American Muslim organizations, including Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Covenants

Dr. Badawi, an authority on Islam, also refuted Aulaqi's argument that Muslims should only enroll in the armies of countries fighting Muslims with the only intention of doing like Hasan.

"It is not permissible to give people the idea you are part of them and peaceful with them and then turn against them and fight them from within in a treasonous way," he stressed.

"This is against the conviction of Islam. To take advantage of that is not Islamic."

There is no official count of Muslims serving in the 1.4 million-strong US armed forces because recruits are not required to state their religion.

But according to the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affair Council, there are more than 20,000 Muslims serving in the military.

Dr. Badawi asserts that Muslims in the army as well as in all walks of life should fulfill their covenants.

"For anyone to enroll in the US army and take the covenant to faithfully serve in it, then he should fulfill his covenant," he said.

"If he received a particular command that involves something against Islam and Allah’s orders, like killing innocent people for example, then he should break his covenant but in an honorable way," added the prominent scholar.

"Muslims do not betray or shoot people from the back. That’s not a character of a Muslim."