Ruling on pledges of allegiance to one’s homeland
Answer
Praise be to Allaah.
What is obligatory is to be loyal to Allaah and His Messenger, in the sense that one takes others as friends or enemies for the sake of Allaah. His homeland may be not Islamic, so how can he be loyal to his homeland? But if his homeland is Islamic, then he must love good for it and strive to achieve that. But his loyalty must be to Allaah, so that whoever is a Muslim and is obedient towards Allaah is his friend, and whoever is opposed to the religion of Allaah is his enemy, even if he is a member of his family or from the same country, and even if he is his brother, uncle or father, etc. Friendship must be for the sake of Allaah and enmity must be for the sake of Allaah. As far as a person’s homeland is concerned, he likes it if it is Islamic. He must promote goodness in his homeland and strive for it to remain Islamic and for its situation and its people to remain stable. This is what is obligatory upon all Muslims. We ask Allaah to strengthen and guide us, you and all the Muslims. May He make our intentions correct and our deeds righteous. May Allaah bless our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions.
Majmoo’ Fataawaa wa Maqaalaat Mutanawwi’ah li Samaahat al-Shaykh al-‘Allaamah ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Baaz, vol. 9, p. 317