Prof. Abdul Hamid Al Ansari is Dean of the College of Sharia Law & Islamic Studies, University of Qatar.  In a discussion with Dave Ross, he outlined five reasons why anti-US fatwahs, especially those calling for jihad in defense of the regime of Saddam Hussein, are invalid under the Koran.  A fatwah is a religious opinion usually issued by an Islamic scholar.
 

1.  Because it has initiated three destructive wars in the past 30 years (against Iran, the Kurds, and Kuwait), wars which have killed upwards of 2,250,000 Muslims, the Iraqi regime has no moral authority to invoke a fatwah.

2.  The Koran and the Sunna (the acts of the Prophet) require Muslims to prevent the kind of oppression practiced by the Iraqi regime.

3.  A call to jihad may only be issued by a head of state, not a scholar.  Scholars who do issue such calls are responsible for whatever consequences befall followers who obey.

4.  In the current conflict, only fatwahs urging the abdication of Saddam Hussein are in the interest of protecting the Iraqi people and therefore valid.

5.  An examination of the United States' 66 interventions in the affairs of other states during the last century would find that in no case did the united States seize land or wealth.  Because the United States has no history of colonization, the intervention in Iraq cannot be considered an occupation, and therefore, under Islamic Law, need not be opposed by the faithful.