Diplomacy and International Relations
The Grand Mufti's Fatwa and the Return of Religious Legitimation in Middle East Conflict
Oct 2, 202634 min
Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti has explicitly sanctified the campaign against the Houthis as an "act of devotion," days after Riyadh, Islamabad and Ankara mobilized under their new Mecca/Makkah mutual-defense pact. This is a genuinely under-covered angle: a modern, technocratic Gulf state reaching for classical religious legitimation language exactly when it needs Pakistani and Turkish publics — not just their governments — to accept the costs of a wider war. For more content please follow on Substack and Instagram .
