The Ruling on Employing Innovators in Religious Positions

Question:
There are people in Yemen who build mosques, and there is good in them, but they do not understand the Sunnah. They employ innovators in these mosques, meaning their beliefs are defective. The people of the Sunnah compete for these positions and occupy the mosques. What is the ruling on their work?

Answer:
The work should be done with wisdom, not with harshness, or by referring the matter to the authorities so that there is no discord or fitnah (trial, discord or temptation), and so that the people of the Sunnah and the community are employed, without fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) arising from it. If the people of innovation built the mosque, there must be a strategy to prevent fitnah (trial, discord or temptation); because they will say: "We built it, why are you taking it from us by force? You, people of the Sunnah, have built mosques for yourselves." They must handle the matters calmly until the people of the Sunnah are employed as imams and mu'adhdhins (the one who calls to prayer).