October 7 and Islam

What does it mean when Hamas calls its attacks on Israel a "religious war"? And what do the countless cries of "Allahu Akbar" during the October 7 massacre signify?

By Matthias Küntzel

University of Haifa, July 7, 2026

Statement issued on the occasion of the international conference “Contemporary Antisemitism Haifa 2026,” which took place July 7–9, 2026, in Haifa, Israel.

It has now been more than 1,000 days since the terrible events of October 7. And yet many questions remain unanswered. I am, for example, interested in the connection between the massacre and Islam. What does it mean when Hamas describes its attacks on Israel as a “religious war”? What do the countless cries of “Allahu Akbar” during the October 7 massacre signify? And how have Islam’s most important religious centers reacted to this antisemitic excess?

These questions are rarely asked. There are still no serious studies that provide comprehensive answers to them. Yet they carry considerable weight. With two billion followers, Islam is now the second-largest and also the fastest-growing religion.

Was this religion misused when, during the massacre of October 7, Allah was invoked as a kind of patron, as if killing and raping Israelis were a form of worship? And if we answer this question in the affirmative — where, then, is the protest voiced by Muslims?

My talk will first revisit the religious dimension of October 7. I will then discuss the reactions of some Sunni centers.

On the Religious Aspect of October 7

Historian Gideon Kressel recounted a conversation he had in Israel with a group of Arabs. Over breakfast, they explained to him “in a calm and friendly manner,” as he writes, that Israel would soon cease to exist; this was because “that is God’s will—nothing can change it.”[1] This certainty of victory — Allah has decreed Israel’s destruction, so Israel will be destroyed — is one of the hallmarks of Islamism. It also manifested itself during the October 7 attack in the form of shouts of jubilation and intensified the terror against the Jews.

“Put your trust in Allah,” urged, for example, a leaflet distributed by a Hamas leader on the evening of October 6. “Rely on Him and […] let the cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ be the crowning glory.”[2]

“Additional captured documents found in the possession of Hamas operatives […] showed how [the] leadership […] instructed the operatives on the ground to act like barbarians toward Jews, soldiers, and civilians, justifying the actions as being carried out in the name of Islam,” states the report by the British All-Parliamentary Group on October 7. “A handwritten note was found in the pocket of a commander of the Hamas military wing. […] He urged his operatives to kill as many Jews as possible, to behead them, and to tear out their hearts and livers for Islam.”[3]

For Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind and leader of the massacre, the religious motive was also central. He believed in the promises of paradise set forth in the Quran. He believed that the murder of Jews was a prerequisite for the world’s salvation and was willing to sacrifice himself and the lives of tens of thousands of Muslims for this cause.

Even in Sinwar’s autobiographical novel, published in 2004 under the title “The Thorn and the Carnation,” the focus was on killing as many Israelis as possible with barbaric cruelty. Sinwar had the protagonist of this novel utter the following words after firing a lethal projectile at Jews: “In the name of God, God is the Greatest, and you did not throw when you threw but it was God who threw.”[4] Here, these madmen declare God to be the actual perpetrator or make themselves into God. Either way, they regard the slaughter of Jews as a kind of religious service; hence the enthusiastic mood on October 7 and the constant cries of “Allahu Akbar.”

So how did key Islamic institutions react to the religiously motivated terror of that day? Let’s start with by far the most important Sunni center of learning — Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

How did Al-Azhar respond?

As early as October 7, just a few hours after the start of the Hamas attack, Al-Azhar issued a statement saying: „Al-Azhar salutes with utmost pride the resistance efforts of the pround Palestinian people … who have imbued us with spirit and faith.“[5] On October 18, 2023 Al-Azhar went a step further and declared in a fatwa that “Zionist civilians on occupied land are not worthy of the description of ‘civilians,’” whereby the term “occupied land” also includes the heartland of Israel.[6] In other words: All Israelis may be killed.

With this fatwa, the most renowned university of Sunni Islam legitimized the hostage-takings and murders—and thus also the burnings, mutilations, rapes, and acts of torture that had by then come to light. This marked a serious shift in the direction of the Islamic world, especially since Al-Azhar had, until then, tended to distance itself from religious extremism and had try to cultivate a “moderate” image. Remarkably, the Western media have almost completely ignored this alarming development.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Offensive

Let us now turn to the groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which include Hamas. While Al-Azhar sometimes claims to be willing to accept Israel’s existence—at least within the framework of a two-state solution—the radically antisemitic Islamists insist that Israel be wiped out entirely.

These groups saw the massacre as the beginning of a decisive Islamic battle for Palestine. They adopted a declaration and a fatwa that endorsed all of Hamas’s demands.[7]

But that’s not all. On June 27, 2025, hundreds of Islamic scholars gathered in Istanbul to adopt a charter. It is titled: Charter of the Islamic Nation’s Religious Scholars regarding the Al-Aqsa-Flood and its implications. The term “Al-Aqsa Flood” refers to the Hamas massacre.[8] This charter is a comprehensive religious manifesto issued by over 500 clerics and 39 Islamic organizations. Its purpose is to provide religious justification for the massacre of October 7.

In particular, it defends Hamas against the frequently voiced criticism that, with its October 7 offensive, it knowingly accepted the subsequent deaths of countless Gaza Muslims. On this point, the charter states:

“The heavy price paid by the people of Gaza during the operation is not cause for regret or despair. It is a testament to true faith and sacrifice. Their reward is with Allah.”

This cynical passage thus confirms Sinwar’s stance, as he has anticipated and publicly defended the deaths of tens of thousands of Muslims in Gaza as a matter of “true faith,” without, however, asking whether the residents of Gaza consented to being sacrificed for Hamas’s higher goals.[9]

This also reminds me of the statement by former Iranian President Rafsanjani, who declared that “even a single atomic bomb in Israel would wipe everything out,” while an Israeli counterstrike would “only damage the Islamic world.” Several hundred thousand additional martyrs of “true faith”—even to him, that price was not too high.

It’s hard for us to take such monstrosity seriously. However, when more than 500 Muslim scholars and 39 Muslim organizations in June 2025 declare that the religious benefit outweighs such humanitarian disasters, then I suppose we have to take that seriously.

Muslim Anti-Islamists on the Defensive

Last but not least, there have, of course, been—and continue to be—countless individual Muslims in Israel, Gaza, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and elsewhere who have sharply criticized the Hamas massacre. However, these Muslims received little coverage in the Western media.

Thus, the statements by the Global Imams Council (GIC), which claims to speak on behalf of nearly 1,500 imams, also remained largely unknown. This organization has adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism. It had already issued a fatwa against Hamas in March 2023 and sharply criticized the attack on October 7. “We stand with the Jewish people in their struggle against the Islamist terrorism of Hamas,” reads its statement on the matter.[10]

The Muslim Ahmadiyya Movement, which has more than 15 million followers worldwide, has also criticized the massacre, calling it “completely against the teachings of Islam and must be condemned.”

As far as I know, these two groups—the Global Imams Council and the Ahmadiyya Movement—were the only Muslim organizations that unreservedly distanced themselves from the Hamas attack. Yet even these groups received little or no coverage from the major Western media outlets.

So let’s wrap this up. I began my remarks with the expectation that the instrumentalization of a religion to justify atrocities against civilians would provoke massive protests from the followers of that religion, whether Jews, Christians, or Muslims. As far as October 7 is concerned, this expectation was not met.

Mainstream Islam, as represented by Saudi Arabia, for example, distanced itself less from Hamas than from Israel, while the Islamists—supported by Erdogan’s Turkey and Qatar—celebrated the terror of October 7 and announced its continuation. This development should be a source of far greater concern not only to the Muslim world but also to the non-Muslim world than is currently the case. Thank you for your attention.

[1] Zit. nach Martin Gilbert, In Ishmael’s House: A History Of Jews In Muslim Lands, Yale University Press, 2010, XVIII.

[2] Itay Ilnai and Filipp Piatov, Like sadistic Nazis: Secret Hamas papers reveal step-by-step action plan for Oct.7, Israel Hayom, June 28, 2024.

[3] All Parliamentary Group UK-Israel, Chaired by Lord Andrew Roberts, The Second Edition, 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report (London: March 2026), p.59. https://www.7octparliamentarycommission.co.uk/second-edition.

[4] Yahya Al-Sinwar, The Thorn and the Carnation, Dublin 2024, p. 388.

[5] Cited after Andrew G.Bostom, Introduction to: A Modern Qur’anic Kampf Against The Jews, January 2026, cxliv.

[6] Ofir Winter & Michael Barak, From Moderate Islam to Radical Islam? Al-Azhar Stands with Hamas, INSS Insight No. 1777, November 2, 2023.

[7] Pesach Wolicki, Pushback in Arab World after New Call for Global Jihad Against Israel, Jerusalem Post, March 31, 2025; Y. Yehoshua and N. Mozes, Charter Signed By Hundreds Of Muslim Scholars Supports Hamas‘ October 7 Attack On Israel, MEMRI, July 10,2025.

[8] Charter of the Islamic Nation’s Religious Scholars regarding the Al-Aqsa-Flood and its implications. I would like to thank the historian and expert on Islamism, Shaul Bartal, who brought this charter to my attention.

[9] „We are ready to die, and tens of thousandss will die with us“, he declared in 2018; quoted in The Second Edition, 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report, London: March 2026, p.60.

[10] Nearly 1,500 Muslim Imams Endorse Fatwa Against Hamas Following Israel Attack, The Yeshivaworld.com, October 15, 2023.

Image: Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo · Source: Wikimedia Commons · Author: Ismaiel · License: CC BY-SA 4.0