200 Muslim scholars call for boycott of companies that directly or indirectly support Israel

The Gaza Conference concluded on Friday at Ayasofya Grand Mosque with the adoption of the Istanbul Declaration, in which scholars and religious leaders from more than 50 countries reaffirmed support for Palestinians’ right to resist Israeli occupation.

The declaration followed eight days of deliberations among nearly 200 participants, including prominent scholars and representatives of Islamic institutions. It rejected any attempt to delegitimise armed resistance, stating: “We are absolutely against the weaponisation of resistance. We reject all efforts to give up resistance, which is the legitimate right of the Palestinian people.”

Delegates marked the closing session by travelling from Democracy and Freedom Island to Ayasofya Mosque for Friday prayers, where Ali Erbas, head of Türkiye’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) President Ali Muhyiddin al-Qaradaghi, and Foundation for Islamic Scholars in Türkiye President Nasrullah Hacimuftuoglu addressed the gathering.

Al-Qaradaghi read the declaration in Arabic, while Hacimuftuoglu delivered it in Turkish.

The Istanbul Declaration announced measures for political, humanitarian, and legal mobilisation, which included:

• Establishing committees to engage heads of state and monitor the implementation of outcomes.
• Allocating a minimum of 2 percent of annual profits from Muslim-owned financial and economic institutions to Gaza aid, through “legal and transparent mechanisms.”
• Demanding that all political and commercial cooperation with Israel be immediately terminated, declaring: “Companies that support Zionism and cooperate directly or indirectly with Zionist companies should not buy their products.”
• Calling on border states to open crossings to Gaza and urging global participation in sea convoys to break the blockade.

The #Gaza Conference concluded Friday at Ayasofya Mosque with an Istanbul Declaration in which around 200 scholars from over 50 countries affirmed support for Palestinians’ right to resist Israeli occupation.

📌 We call on the states targeted by Israel to take realistic and… pic.twitter.com/7gE5AoWb4b

— DOAM (@doamuslims) August 30, 2025

Organisers said the conference was convened in response to “continuous massacres in Gaza” and global inaction. Qaradaghi likened the gathering to Hilf al-Fudul, an ancient pre-Islamic alliance formed to defend justice, calling it “an effective step to stop the attacks and bring the criminals to justice.”

While formally closing on Friday, participants described the gathering as the start of an ongoing effort. “Today, we do not declare the closing of the Islamic and Humanitarian Responsibility: Gaza Conference. On the contrary, we declare the beginning of the work of this conference,” the declaration read.

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The conference, jointly organised by the IUMS and the Foundation for Islamic Scholars in Türkiye, opened on August 22 at Istanbul’s Eyup Sultan Mosque and continued for nearly a week on Democracy and Freedom Island, hosting workshops on humanitarian aid, political coordination, and alliance building. The Istanbul Declaration, issued at Ayasofya, served as its final communiqué.