A recent conference in Istanbul, “Islamic and Humanitarian Responsibility: Gaza,” was a landmark event for the global Islamist movement. Held from August 22-29 and organized by the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and Türkiye’s Foundation for Islamic Scholars, it brought together over 150 Muslim clerics and academics from more than 50 countries.
However, a closer look reveals this was not a simple humanitarian gathering, but a sophisticated and strategic maneuver by a Qatari-Turkish axis designed to weaponize religious authority for geopolitical gain. This event represents a clear instance of state-sponsored incitement, a direct challenge to regional and global stability, and a chilling redefinition of religious duty.
Choosing Istanbul as the host city, specifically its use of historical venues like the Eyüp Sultan Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, was a deliberate and potent act of soft power. By hosting a major pan-Islamic conference at these revered sites, Türkiye’s government projected an image of itself as a champion of Islamic causes and a leader of the Sunni world. This strategy, championed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, aims to rally support among global Muslims and consolidate influence. The presence of high-ranking Turkish officials, such as Ali Erbaş, president of Türkiye’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), directly linked the conference to state-level policy, demonstrating Ankara’s direct involvement in enabling this transnational Islamist mobilization.
Reinterpreting ‘Jihad’
At the heart of the agenda is the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), an organization with deep ideological roots. Formed in 2004, IUMS was founded “mostly by clerics belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.” Its former chairman, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, is widely considered the “spiritual leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood,” a link that defines the organization’s ideological foundation. This association has led a bloc of Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, to designate the IUMS as a terrorist organization, a move that Türkiye met with “backlash.” This rivalry highlights a fundamental division in the Middle East, where the Qatari-Turkish axis competes directly with the Saudi-UAE bloc for regional influence.
The most critical and dangerous element of the Istanbul conference is the deliberate reinterpretation of “jihad” to serve a political and military agenda. While the conference’s public narrative centered on humanitarian and legal themes, a separate religious ruling, or fatwa, issued by the IUMS explicitly legitimized “jihad against the ‘Zionist entity’ and its allies involved in the war in Gaza.” This ruling deems such a struggle a “religious obligation” for all Muslims, calling on governments to intervene militarily and economically, and urging the formation of a “unified Islamic military alliance.”
This reveals a two-pronged strategy: the IUMS uses the benign language of “humanitarian” and “legal” advocacy as a public shield while simultaneously issuing a far more radical, private-facing legal ruling that sanctions military action. The conference itself affirmed that a “media jihad” is a “central pillar” in this struggle and “no less critical than the battle on the ground.” This is a modern-day Trojan horse, where humanitarian rhetoric is used to justify and normalize the more extreme interpretation of jihad. This pattern is not new; the 2009 “Jihadi Istanbul Declaration,” also signed by IUMS leaders, similarly called for “jihad against Israel in support of Hamas” and regarded the presence of foreign warships in Muslim waters as a “declaration of war.”
The conference is a public manifestation of a strategic partnership between Qatar and Türkiye, a collaboration driven by converging geopolitical interests. Qatar’s role is one of financial patronage; the IUMS is headquartered in Qatar, and a charity dinner there once raised $6.5 million for an IUMS endowment project. Leaked documents reveal Qatar has invested over $100 million in mosque and school projects in Europe, with a significant portion going to Muslim Brotherhood-aligned networks. For Türkiye, hosting this event aligns with its ambition to be a major regional power. Erdoğan has repeatedly accused Israel of “genocidal behavior” and compared its government to Nazi Germany.
In sum, the Istanbul conference was not an innocent gathering of scholars but a coordinated act of state-sponsored incitement. The Qatari-Turkish axis, leveraging the ideological authority of the IUMS, is using religious networks to project influence and challenge its rivals. This coordinated effort, which seeks to mobilize Muslims globally, poses a direct threat to stability and exposes a strategic inconsistency in Western policy toward states that serve as diplomatic partners while simultaneously funding extremist networks.
Amine Ayoub is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco.
