Demolishing churches in exchange for demolishing mosques
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: In yesterday's lesson, you stated that it is not permissible to demolish places of worship, such as churches. However, if the enemy attacks the lands of the Muslims and demolishes the mosques and kills the Muslims inside them, do we retaliate against them in kind?
The Shaykh:
No, we do not demolish churches. Even if they demolish our mosques, we do not demolish theirs, because this is among the matters prohibited for the Muslims. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father.
The Shaykh:
We do not allow the dhimmis (protected non-Muslims) in our lands to build new churches; building new ones, that is. As for the old churches, they remain. But if they want to build a church, we do not allow them to do so. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: In yesterday's lesson, you stated that it is not permissible to demolish places of worship, such as churches. However, if the enemy attacks the lands of the Muslims and demolishes the mosques and kills the Muslims inside them, do we retaliate against them in kind?
The Shaykh:
No, we do not demolish churches. Even if they demolish our mosques, we do not demolish theirs, because this is among the matters prohibited for the Muslims. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father.
The Shaykh:
We do not allow the dhimmis (protected non-Muslims) in our lands to build new churches; building new ones, that is. As for the old churches, they remain. But if they want to build a church, we do not allow them to do so. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 089 من 123 / شرح كتاب زاد المستقنع / الظهار / صالح الفوزان / الفقه / كبار العلماء — youtube.com (48:24)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.