DETROIT — Amid growing security concerns about violent Western jihadists in Syria, several local imams said American Muslims should not join the war overseas. 

Imam Mohammad Mardini, of the American Muslim Center in Dearborn, said there are two kinds of “jihad,” which literally translates as “struggle” from Arabic. He explained that the grand jihad is self-constraint from sins, and the minor jihad is the fight for righteousness and helping the subjects of injustice, but the political international conflict in Syria does not qualify as “jihad.”

Mardini said he advises the Muslim community’s young people to focus on local issues and respect Syria’s borders.

“The emotional response to the events in Syria does not benefit the Syrian people. Trying to join the fight there is futile,” said Mardini. “States have their particularities, and their own people are better equipped to handle them.”

The Dearborn imam said he is not aware of any mosques that call for jihad in Syria.

Ahmad Jibril.

A report by the British think tank International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence has cited local cleric Ahmad Jibril as an inspirational figure for Western fighters among al-Qaeda affiliated groups in Syria. 

Jibril, who has a large online following of fighters from Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq  and al-Sham, eulogizes dead fighters, posts videos of conservative sermons and voices anti-Western and anti-Shi’a views. However, he does not openly call for people to join the fight in Syria. According to the report, Jebril was convicted of 42 fraud charges in 2004. He remained in jail until March 2012.

Mardini said he refuses sectarianism and does not know Jibril. According to Mardini, Jibril is not involved in major meetings between Muslim scholars in Michigan.

The war in Syria has drawn thousands of foreign fighters who joined al-Qaeda-linked rebel factions. Fighters from Hizbullah and Shi’a Iraqi militias are also fighting in Syria alongside government forces against the rebels.

Western and Arab governments are struggling to stop people from going to fight in Syria. Saudi Arabia has banned fighting in the wartorn country, and the British government has created social programs and is working with parents to prevent their children from going to Syria.

Last week, FBI Director James Comey said the war in Syria is a major threat to U.S. national security. “There are now thousands of foreign fighters in Syria who are gaining training, gaining new relationships, and they will flow back out of Syria at some point,” Comey said at a press conference in Detroit.

Several Muslim men have been arrested for trying to join militant groups in Syria that are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. Hassan Hamdan, a Dearborn Heights resident, is currently facing trial for allegedly planning to join Hizbullah in Syria.

Although Western fighters in Syria are estimated to number more than 2000, Eric Haroun, an army veteran from Arizona, is the only known American to have actually fought in Syria. Haroun, a Muslim convert, fought in northern Syria for months before returning to America in 2013. 

He was arrested and spent six months in solitary confinement upon his return. He died in his California home last month of an accidental drug overdose. 

Grand Ayatollah Abdul Latif Berry, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Institute of Knowledge in Dearborn, defined jihad as “self-defense.”

“When an enemy attacks your land and your country, you have a right to defend yourself. It is a right granted by human nature and international law,” he said. “But what’s happening in Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Libya today is not jihad. It is terrorism and killing of civilians. We object it and condemn it. I have warned young people in my sermons not to pay attention or be enthused about this false jihad.”

Asked about Hamdan’s supposed plans to join Hizbullah, Berry said he does not know of any members of the Lebanese group in Michigan.

“According to my information, there isn’t anybody who is organized with Hizbullah here,” he said. “People might support the resistance against Israel, but it does not mean they are a part of Hizbullah.”

Eric Harroun.

Berry added that he objects setting up “naive and foolish” young people by intelligence agencies in order to charge them with terrorism. “If we follow this policy, thousands of people would end up in jail,” he said. “They should set up cunning criminals, not take advantage of the youths’ simplicity.”

Berry, a Shi’a cleric, said Muslims’ main religious duty for Syria  is to try to make peace between the warring sides. “We condemn calls for violence in Syria. Our obligation is find a solution to stop the bloodshed,” said Berry. “The Quran says, ‘If two factions among the believers should fight, then make settlement between the two.'”

The grand ayatollah said the threat of jihadists in Syria is a challenge that could spread beyond the Middle East. “This phenomenon of false jihad in Syria is not only a security threat to the Middle East. It is developing and spreading, and we fear that it will reach Europe and the United States,” explained Berry.

He added that he advises local Arabs and Muslims to be a police force of citizens and alert the authorities about activities that could be harmful to the United States. “We are Americans,” he said. “The U.S. security is our security.”

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, the spiritual leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, described the U.S. policy in Syria as “political hypocrisy.”

“The U.S. government is worried about al-Qaeda in Syria, but at the same time it adds fuel to the fire there, and gives weapons to the opposition. Nobody knows where these weapons end up. The situation is very chaotic there,” he said.

Elahi said al-Qaeda’s fight in Syria is a “crime, not jihad.” “We are concerned about these so-called jihadist foreigners who go to another country to bring destruction and death to it. This has nothing to do with the Islamic concept of jihad,” said Elahi.

The Dearborn Heights imam described fundamentalist groups in Syria as “takfiris,” hardliners who consider people of different sects and ideologies infidels. 

He said they are committing a crime against the Muslim religion and fueling Islamophobia by committing atrocities in the name of Islam. He added that an international conspiracy has brought al-Qaeda to Syria.

“It is a tragic time for Syria,” he stated. “The West has supported the opposition until realizing that it is getting too far, and the extremists are going to be a big threat to the Middle East and the entire world.”

Elahi said the war in Syria is not one between Sunnis and Shi’a because the Syrian regime is not Shi’a and most of the Syrian army is Sunni. He added that Hizbullah and Iraqi Shi’a militants have joined the war for political, not sectarian reasons. He said the conflict is used to cause division among Muslims.

However, Elahi said people who are passionate about the situation in Syria should not engage in activities that would break the law. “Whoever lives in this country should follow the rules and regulations of this country,” he said.

Nabih Ayad, the executive director of the Arab-American Civil Rights League (ACRL), said it was “troubling,” that the United States supports the rebels in Syria but prosecutes American individuals who try to join them.

“Common sense would tell you that when we are helping fund and arm rebels on the ground, fears of people joining them is a disingenuous concern,” he said.

Ayad added that he is concerned that the perceived threat of jihadists in Syria would be used for other purposes to scrutinize the Arab and Muslim communities and open “selective investigations” that are not related to terrorism.

The ACRL chairman explained that it is legal to declare support for any side in the Syrian conflict, as the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution protects all opinions.

“Giving material support to what has been classified as a terrorist organization by the state department is a 20-year federal offense,” said Ayad. “But I can say, ‘I support Hizbullah’ or ‘I like what the rebels are doing.’ That’s perfectly fine. There’s a difference between opinions and actions.”