In a letter to the ruler, which was rather a fatwa he denied the former's right to have Barth arrested or killed and his belongings confiscated, as the Christian was neither a dhimmi (a non-Muslim subject of a Muslim ruler) nor an enemy of Islam, but the native of a friendly country, that is Great Britain. He went as far as to deny Ahmad Ahmad ibn Muhammad Lobbo the right to proclaim a jihad and called him "the ruler over a few huts at the outskirts of the Islamic world".
In a letter to the ruler, he contested the former's authority to arrest or harm Barth, stating that the Christian was neither a dhimmi (a non-Muslim subject) nor an enemy of Islam. The Christian was merely a native of Great Britain and not an adversary of the Islamic world. He even went as far as to deny Ahmad Ahmad ibn Muhammad Lobbo the right to declare a jihad and referred to him as "the ruler over a few huts at the edge of the Islamic world".