Bereaved Father to Sue Over Jihad Call

The father of a young Saudi fighter who died in Falluja is planning to sue religious scholars who have called for jihad against the US-led occupation of Iraq, a Saudi newspaper reported yesterday.

He was launching his legal action to make a stand against preachers who tried to "corrupt the minds of young men", the newspaper al-Madina said.

The father, Majid Shabib al-Otaibi, blamed 26 Saudi scholars who this month signed a statement saying that "jihad against the occupiers is a duty for all who are able".

Mr Otaibi had given his son money for the journey, believing that he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca, not to Iraq, the paper said. It did not say when the young man set off, or when he was killed.

A number of non-Iraqi Muslim insurgents have been captured or killed in Iraq, but it is unclear how many have joined the fighting there.

Last year a London-based Saudi dissident, Saad al-Fagih, of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, suggested that the crackdown on terrorism in Saudi Arabia could be driving militants across the border into Iraq.

"If a young man is confronted with no choice but to end up in a small cell being tortured and the other option is to flee to Iraq, Iraq is a good option," he said. "It's an ideal place and there's an ideal enemy."

Large numbers of Saudis and others joined the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s and the authorities in Riyadh are anxious to avoid a repetition of that in Iraq.

The Otaibi case follows a call by Sheikh Saleh al-Laheedan, the chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council, for a clampdown on scholars who incite young people to fight in Iraq.

"Going to Iraq and participating in armed acts is not jihad. It will only worsen the security situation there," he said in remarks quoted on Saturday by Okaz, a newspaper with close links to the interior ministry. "What is happening in Iraq is not jihad. It's chaos and confusion. Iraqis are killing Iraqis, including women and children."

The 26 scholars who declared their support for resistance in Iraq have been denounced by the Saudi authorities as "a tiny extremist minority". Their message was addressed to Iraqis and did not specifically urge Saudis to take part.

A few days after the scholars issued their statement, the Saudi wing of al-Qaida made a generalised appeal to Muslims to help defend Falluja from "crusaders".