Syrian Justice Minister Dr. Mazhar al-Wais said in an interview with the Media Line that coordination between the Syrian state and the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) can be lawful under Islamic Shariah if it follows Shariah policy principles and serves the public interest. He cautioned against confusing “loyalty” with “legitimate dealings.”

Islamic law, he explained, is a comprehensive system derived from the Quran and the Sunnah - the recorded example, sayings, and actions of the Prophet Muhammad - that governs worship, transactions, ethics, and social behavior, aiming to achieve justice, mercy, and the common good. A fatwa, he said, is a formal legal opinion issued by a qualified scholar who applies these sources to specific cases. While a Shariah ruling expresses God’s command, a fatwa interprets that command in real-world circumstances through evidence-based reasoning.

Al-Wais emphasized that Islamic law distinguishes between loyalty and practical dealings, stating, “Not every political or security coordination is considered loyalty,” and urging people to base their judgments on the nature and objectives of an act rather than emotion or haste.
He described Syria’s ties with the coalition as limited to security and information sharing for counterterrorism, with no subordination or loss of sovereignty, adding that such cooperation serves Syria’s higher national interest against IS.

The minister said Syrian fighting factions were the first to confront IS and to reject its ideology. Overlapping operations with coalition strikes, he explained, do not indicate an alliance but rather shared interests in fighting a common enemy.
Al-Wais argued that IS’s emergence opened the door to major-power involvement in the region and called for policies to be evaluated by their results. He cited earlier fatwas that permitted temporary coordination to avert greater harm, referencing Operation Euphrates Shield, the 2016 Turkish military campaign in northern Syria to drive IS fighters from the border and restrain Kurdish territorial expansion.