Saudi cleric: ISIS soldiers must kill their commanders

A Saudi Muslim cleric has bad news for members of the Muslim terror gang ISIS, also called Islamic State: They’re going to "hellfire."

And he says the one way for ISIS soldiers to avoid such punishment is to kill their their commanders and flee.

The comments from Saudi cleric Sa'd Al-Shathri came in an Aug. 31 interview on the Saudi TV channel Majd TV, according to a report from the Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors the region's media.

The cleric warns that ISIS members are “apostates.”

”The organization known as ‘The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’ is fighting Allah and his messenger. They [spread] corruption and act against Islamic law. They shut down mosques, kill Islamic scholars, and prohibit religious books and the hijab. They torture Allah's believing servants,” Al-Shathri said.

"First, belonging to this organization constitutes a major sin," he said. "Belonging to this organization despite knowing its true nature constitutes apostasy. Members of this organization should leave it immediately. Since (ISIS) kills those who try to leave it, members should kill their unit commander, and as many ISIS members as possible. Perhaps Allah will forgive them for having joined ISIS."

He also said ISIS members who die fighting are not martyrs who will be rewarded in the afterlife. Instead, Shariah determines that members of ISIS “will go to the hellfire,” he said.

"Third, an oath of allegiance pledged to ISIS is null and void, and should not be adhered to. It is worthless,” he wrote. “Fourth, it is forbidden to cooperate with ISIS in any way, since this is considered a betrayal of Allah, His Messenger and the Muslims. It is forbidden to reach any agreement or truce with them.”

Shathri said fighting ISIS "is one of the most important duties ordained by the Shariah."

"We hope that anyone who is killed while fighting ISIS for the sake of Allah will be considered a martyr," he said. "ISIS has followers and supporters in many countries, and therefore Muslim should disclose any information they have about them and inform the authorities about anyone who works with them."

He said even family members should turn in ISIS followers.

”When a mother informs the authorities about her son, and then he spends years in prison until he returns to his senses – she is fulfilling her duty. This is better than joining ISIS, or being killed supporting these heretics. The same holds true for a wife informing on her husband, a sister on her brother, a neighbor on his neighbor. This is done out of love for the people they inform on.”

In a commentary for the New York Times, two leaders with links to Muslim-funded institutions and organizations in the U.S. said Saudi Arabia is the prime target for ISIS, and the Saudis are the only ones who can stop the terror army.

The piece was written by Nawaf Obaid of the Essam and Dalal Obaid Foundation and Saud al-Sarhan of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.

They write: “ISIS emerged not from Saudi Arabia but from postwar Iraq and the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s senior officer corps and their local support networks in Iraq and Syria. This has enabled ISIS to capture large swathes of land in these two countries and seize valuable economic, financial and energy assets, thus becoming financially self-sufficient. Now they are after Saudi Arabia’s riches.”

They said Saudi Arabia "is the only authority in the region with the power and legitimacy to bring ISIS down."

"Having effectively eradicated al-Qaida in the kingdom, the Saudi government, with its experience fighting terrorism, is uniquely positioned to deal with ISIS, which is, after all, an al-Qaida-aligned organization. The kingdom has built up an impressive counterterrorism program and its counterterrorism strategies are considered some of the most sophisticated and effective in the world.”

Fox News reported the king of Saudi Arabia warned that ISIS strike soon in the U.S.