When a website reported that a Chechen leader announced his responsibility for the hostage-taking operation of the students of a Russian school, he was actually introducing a new approach of war in Islam that Muslim scholars were very much opposed to. Taking hostages and making some demands in return for their release is unlawful according to Islamic Shari’a. In the following interview, Sheikh al-Qaradawi answers questions about the fiqh [jurisprudence] of war in Islam.