International Union of Muslim Scholars

IUMS does not follow any specific country, group, or sect. It is not hostile to governments, but rather seeks to open windows of cooperation for the good of Islam and Muslims. In its "desired characteristics", the IUMS includes being by Muslims for Muslim and about Islam; international; independent of governments (though "not hostile to governments") and sects ("it is only proud of belonging to Islam and its transnational community - Ummah"); interested in scholarly Islamic knowledge, teaching, and education; concerned with the call (Da'wah) to Islam "by tongue, pen, and every contemporary legitimate medium; be it recorded, audio, or visual"; moderation ("the centermost approach of the centermost Ummah"); and vitality. They claim to have conducted successful mediation efforts in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 between the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks. IUMS is not a local or a regional union, neither an Arab nor a national one, neither an eastern, nor a western union; rather, it represents all of the Muslims in the entire Islamic world, as well as all of the Muslim minorities and Islamic groups outside of the Muslim world. Headquarters The IUMS was headquartered at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland near Dublin, Ireland, with the offices of the Secretary General in Qatar. Funding In May 2012, a charity dinner in Qatar raised the equivalent of US$6.5 million for the "Renaissance of a Nation" endowment project of the IUMS. ==Views==

In 2004, the International Association of Muslim Scholars ruled that resisting occupation troops in Iraq is a "duty" on all able Muslims whether they are in Iraq or outside Iraq and that aiding the occupier was impermissible. In 2007, the International Union for Muslim Scholars caused controversy when it called for the destruction of the Shrine of Abu Lu'lu'a (located in Kashan, Iran), a suggestion which was not well received by some in Iran, having been perceived as a specifically anti-Iranian act. In 2008, Mohammad Salim Al-Awa, secretary general of the IUMS opposed Egypt's birth control program, stating: "The state is not God and the state is not the creator. We should not try to limit the number of children." In 2015, speaking about Hamas, the leader of IUMS stated, "We view Hamas from the perspective of the Palestinian cause, which must remain the pre-eminent cause not just for the union but for all Arabs, Muslims, and free humanitarians in the world. We stand against oppression, tyranny, displacement and detention tactics that Israeli occupation forces rely on; this is a humanitarian and an international stance. Hamas is defending the rights of the nation, and the nation must stand by those who defend its preeminent cause." The group appealed to Muslims to continue to protest but not to resort to violence. IUMS condemned the Houthi coup in Yemen. They advised the Houthis to return home and to stop compromising the "legitimate government" of Yemen. They fully endorse the Saudi-led war in Yemen. From a religious legal perspective IUMS says "one must stand with the legitimate government and cannot back a coup." They used this mentality to disagree with Saudi Arabia on the coup in Egypt and the ousting of Mohamed Morsi. ==International relations and diplomacy==

On 13 June 2013, former IUMS official Abdullah Bin Bayyah met with Obama administration officials in Washington where he lobbied for help with the Syrian opposition forces. U.S. National Security Council official Gayle Smith asked for the meeting looking for "new mechanisms to communicate with you and the Association of Muslim Scholars". Bin Bayyah also met with Rashad Hussain, U.S. envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The IUMS was designated a terrorist organization in the United Arab Emirates in 2014 over ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The action was taken amid a controversy between Qatar and other GCC states, during which a number of states downgraded relations with Qatar and recalled their ambassadors as a result of Qatar's backing of the Muslim Brotherhood. The designation was met with skepticism by the United Kingdom and rejection by the United States and Norway. The IUMS rejected the designation and expressed "extreme astonishment of its inclusion by the UAE among the terrorists groups and rejects this description completely," said the group, which says it seeks to promote scholarship and awareness of Islam." The group has also formally met with dignitaries of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. IUMS leadership has also works with senior Indonesian officials and met with members of the European parliament in the past. == Controversies ==

Alleged terrorism support Former IUMS leader al-Qaradawi was banned from traveling to the US and the UK because of his support for Hamas. The Union of Good, a charity group headed by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was formally designated by the US State Department as a "foreign terrorist organization". CNN said that al-Taqwa "was sending money to the likes of al Qaeda and Hamas through charitable fronts". As a result of its alleged links with terrorism, several Arab countries listed IUMS as a terrorist organization. Affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood Reuters wrote that the IUMS was "formed in 2004 mostly by clerics belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood". According to The Jerusalem Post, Yusuf al-Qaradawi is "a central figure affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood", adding "many consider him the supreme religious and ideological authority for the Muslim Brotherhood, although he is not officially its leader". Matthew Levitt, former FBI official, said that "Qaradawi is one of the most public figureheads of the radical wing of the Muslim Brotherhood". ==Notable past and present figures==

• Yusuf al-Qaradawi, former Chair • Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalili (Grand Mufti of Oman), Vice President • Ali Muhiuddin Al-Qurra Daghi, Secretary General • Faisal Malawi • Jamal Badawi • Essam Al-Bashir • Salman al-Ouda, who, , was Assistant Secretary of the IUMS according to a Saudi legal case against him. ==See also==