By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
A consortium of one hundred and twenty Islamic Scholars have placed onto the internet an Open Letter to Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi denouncing the organization’s violent and extremist actions in the Middle East. The letter, in the form of an interactive website, provides the world with an opportunity to read a perspective of the Islamic State’s affront to civilization from an academic analysis by scholars. The letter addresses the fundamental and basis in canon for disputing the claims of Al-Baghdadi that his is the only pure and legitimate form of Islam–refuting his claims of divine assent.
The original, in the Arabic, is presently being translated into other languages. The English is presently available.
There has been unfortunately much misconception in the Western World that there lacks true dissent to the terrorist outrages in the Muslim World. This letter can serve a secondary goal to educate those in other cultures having concerns.
Here follows the contents of the Open Letter:
Executive Summary
- It is forbidden in Islam to issue fatwas without all the necessary learning requirements. Even then fatwas must follow Islamic legal theory as defined in the Classical texts. It is also forbidden to cite a portion of a verse from the Qur’an—or part of a verse—to derive a ruling without looking at everything that the Qur’an and Hadith teach related to that matter. In other words, there are strict subjective and objective prerequisites for fatwas,and one cannot ‘cherry-pick’ Qur’anic verses for legal arguments without considering the entire Qur’an and Hadith.
- It is forbidden in Islam to issue legal rulings about anything without mastery of the Arabic language.
- It is forbidden in Islam to oversimplify Shari’ah matters and ignore established Islamic sciences.
- It is permissible in Islam [for scholars] to differ on any matter, except those fundamentals of religion that all Muslims must know.
- It is forbidden in Islam to ignore the reality of contemporary times when deriving legal rulings.
- It is forbidden in Islam to kill the innocent.
- It is forbidden in Islam to kill emissaries, ambassadors, and diplomats; hence it is forbidden to kill journalists and aid workers.
- Jihad in Islam is defensive war. It is not permissible without the right cause, the right purpose and without the right rules of conduct.
- It is forbidden in Islam to declare people non-Muslim unless he (or she) openly declares disbelief.
- It is forbidden in Islam to harm or mistreat—in any way—Christians or any ‘People of the Scripture’.
- It is obligatory to consider Yazidis as People of the Scripture.
- The re-introduction of slavery is forbidden in Islam. It was abolished by universal consensus.
- It is forbidden in Islam to force people to convert.
- It is forbidden in Islam to deny women their rights.
- It is forbidden in Islam to deny children their rights.
- It is forbidden in Islam to enact legal punishments (hudud ) without following the correct procedures that ensure justice and mercy.
- It is forbidden in Islam to torture people.
- It is forbidden in Islam to disfigure the dead.
- It is forbidden in Islam to attribute evil acts to God.
- It is forbidden in Islam to destroy the graves and shrines of Prophets and Companions.
- Armed insurrection is forbidden in Islam for any reason other than clear disbelief by the ruler and not allowing people to pray.
- It is forbidden in Islam to declare a caliphate without consensus from all Muslims.
- Loyalty to one’s nation is permissible in Islam.
- After the death of the Prophet, Islam does not require anyone to emigrate anywhere.
You are invited to read the letter in its entirety. It may be found below. As an aid in navigation, click on the link for [Read The Letter] followed by page turning navigation arrows at the upper left of the screen.
http://www.lettertobaghdadi.com/
So far, the Facebook Page has over 103,000 Likes and growing–a welcome start.
By Darren Smith
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Jim Jones said he Christian, I guess all Christians should be defined by him?
Pogo
So if a Muslim interprets Islam in all the societally good ways, wishes no harm on anyone, does good, then you lump them in with ISIS because they both call themselves Muslims? What about the strict Christians and Jews who believe in all the stuff in the bible, old and new testament, Torah, etc. where there are several directives to go out and slaughter those that aren’t like them……?
Supposedly the US and separation of church and state is about rising above religion, all religions. Those that want to believe in stuff are free to as long as they don’t go around slaughtering others who don’t conform. Then it is just sicko thuggery.
There is nothing like religion to give one license to rise above others and then kill them. Thuggery is thuggery no matter how it is labeled, how many times you pray a day, or how fantastic the ‘houses of worship are’.
Po – I am trying to understand the terminology and meaning. If one is right and one is wrong, does this letter affirm that the clerics are right and ISIS is wrong?
This scholarly letter lists all these things that are forbidden that ISIS has committed, what is the consensus that the punishment should be for al Baghdadi and his followers?
When we kill 62 civilians (at least) in attacking ISIS – is that outrageous or extreme?
“Skip the religious mumbo jumbo in all cases and go to the root of the problem.”
What if the root of the problem is their religion?
The moment you give thuggery the credibility of a religion that has one and a half billion members, of which hundreds of millions practice the religion inoffensively, you are compromised in the face of this despicable enemy. You shoot a rabid dog without blaming all other dogs. It is no longer a dog but a threat. If a human comes at you with a knife or a gun, you drop it. You don’t consider dogness or humanity. These thugs can call themselves whatever they want and believe in whatever they have cherry picked from Islam. The way to respond to this nonsense is to reject those that do harm in the name of a religion and embrace those that do good.
The thugs in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Africa, regardless of the religion they call home must be seen as opportunistic thugs and nothing else. Why confuse the issue with religion?
It is not what someone calls themselves. It is how they act. An atheist that harms no one is light years ahead of a devout Christian, Muslim, or other that does any harm. This holier than thou card is at the root of the world’s problems.
It is not a case of who’s holier than whom but who is slaughtering whom for no acceptable reasons. A thug is a thug is a thug. Wax em all, stop trying to understand them.
The bane of mankind is those that use religion to justify their crimes. Skip the religious mumbo jumbo in all cases and go to the root of the problem. Invasion is invasion, stealing is stealing, apartheid is apartheid. Don’t invite them to a peace table. Wax em.
Denounce, denounce, denounce…
Eh…here is the denunciation…and that one…and that one…
Uh…what took them so long? WHAT TOOK THEM SO LONG?!
Ah, Nick, fascinating Nick, simple Nick! What would Turley blog be without you to muddle things and make even less sense of it! With friend like you, Turley needs no enemy!
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“ Something severed heads and incinerated bodies have a hard time doing, I agree.
Haha, so what’s your excuse, Pogo?
“This is a higher level of intellectual engagement…”
Something severed heads and incinerated bodies have a hard time doing, I agree.
“Have you read the links I provided? No!”
We need fewer words, more action.
I post the the usual litany of “evil acts done in the name of Islam” because the bodies keep piling up, yet you maintain it’s not Islam.
Pogo, Quite sobering account and it’s only the past 4 days.
Pogo
Have you read the links I provided? No! Then please spare us the usual litany of “evil acts done in the name of Islam”. I hope you realize sooner rather than later that you undermine your own faith whenever you do that. This is a higher level of intellectual engagement, please don’t reduce it to the tit for tat of the lower mind.
Deb
Generally, normal sunni muslims would not go out of their way to call anyone an apostate. Only God knows who is. Calling someone an apostate is really a political move, in order to set them up for something.
So if you hear someone being eager to call another muslim an apostate, be wary of them.
A prophetic hadith says that whenever one calls another an apostate, one of them is necessarily right, either the called, or the callee.
Are the followers of al Baghdadi ( false caliph) apostates? Is this letter calling them apostates, and if so, then what is the proper reaction from the Muslim world?
po, actions, not words.
I’ll believe ISIS does not represent Islam when this stops for even a month:
(I mean who am I gonna believe, you or the severed heads?)
2015.02.22 Nigeria Potiskum
A child suicide bomber murders five patrons at an outdoor market.
2015.02.21 Syria Qardaha
At least four others are killed by a suicide bomber at a hospital.
2015.02.21 Iraq al-Baghdadi
Forty-three moderate Sunnis are burned alive by the caliphate.
2015.02.20 Libya al-Qubah
Fifty people are blown to bits by three Islamic State suicide car bombs.
2015.02.20 Somalia Mogadishu
A Shahid suicide bomber exterminates twenty-five ‘apostates’ at a luxury hotel.
2015.02.19 Niger Tourba Guida
Three people are murdered by a Boko Haram attack on a village.
2015.02.19 Nigeria Chibok
At least thirty are left dead when Boko Haram gunmen open up randomly on villagers.
2015.02.18 Pakistan Islamabad
A Jundullah suicide bomber detonates outside a Shiite mosque, killing four innocents.
2015.02.18 Iraq Mosul
An elderly man is tied up and stoned to death after being accused of adultery.
2015.02.18 Iraq Samarrah
Six Iraqis killed by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2015.02.18 Egypt Cairo
A bomb planted by religious extremists kills a street cleaner.
If world leaders admit and accept the Sun’s core is a pulsar they cannot predict or control – A Higher Power Than World Leaders – true world peace will again be possible
Though of course the Muslims writing this have cherry picked. Without a full Islamic Reformation with understood and distinct limits of the religion, — & the idea of jihad and the Sword — the religion will be discredited by insane people
When a crazy Christian goes on a rampage it is never said they are doing it in the name of religion, & there is an immediate condemnation from all Christian communities relevant
Thanks Darren for this.
For those who say “at last”, you sound like those who think something was nonexistent until they became aware of it.
Imams, scholars and laymen have been stating their disapproval of extremism in their faith for decades. Where is the media coverage of it?
10 minutes online would show a hundred links to talks, conferences, discussions where the participants denounced loudly and clearly those who do violence in the name of Islam, and this way even before 9/11.
At least have the decency, friends, to do your homework before shooting your mouth.
And Pogo, before you endorse the Atlantic essay as the gospel of ISIS, here is an answer to it. Let me know what you think.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/20/atlantic-defines-real-islam-says-isis/
Then this islamic perspective on ISIS middleeasteye.net/columns/isis-and-academic-veil-islamophobia-87953877
Then here is a history of ISIS that shows that, as usual, we are responsible for creating our own boogeyman. http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/no-piers-morgan-how-destroy-islamic-state-1630388804
Reblogged this on The GOLDEN RULE and commented:
Secondly, it is clearly evident, if looking at a range of sources, to see that the so-called IS group is not a legitimate Islamic idealist movement. They did not suddenly blossom, ( a bad choice of word, I admit), from nothing, to a force to be reckoned with, without considerable outside support. Funding, vehicles, armaments, weaponry, organized leadership, incentive to thrust into places that provide justification for Western intrusion. How many times have you seen videos of supposed IS members praying to Allah in different directions? Where did all their funding and equipment come from? (For one of some references, see http://tgrule.com/?s=ISIS )
Thirdly, a little stretch of the imagination would take you into the world of ‘1984’ (George Orwell) or ‘Brave New World’ (Aldous Huxley), to make it easier to understand the techniques of the ‘ungodly’ in their effforts for world domination.
Close to home (Australia) we now have our ‘esteemed’ PM promoting sacrifice of civil liberties in the interests of combating almost non-existent terrorism in Australia. “Terrorism” that may even be of the set up false-flag variety, or perhaps simply isolated incidents being utilized to his advantage.
So when ISIS, or IS is shown up to be illegitimate by genuine Islamists, we should take note.
What a bunch of ”pigwash”, a pile of trash! I know some Muslims (non-dedicated) personally who will tell you, those dedicated to Islam (95%) will lie, cheat, kill and whatever else they have to do to promote their religious ideology/theology. Islam is very political and is an evil religion that demand complete allegiance and control and they control with fear and kill those who do not convert to Islam. There intent is to control the whole world with their religion. They are WORSE than Hitler could have ever been! Anyone who says differently are lying or ignorant!
A fatwa is a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue and ”they determine the pronouncement”.
Here’s a great example: Jerry Falwell once said: “I think Muhammad was a terrorist. I read enough by both Muslims and non-Muslims, [to decide] that he was a violent man, a man of war.” The following Friday, Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, an Iranian cleric, issued a ”fatwa” calling for Falwell’s death, saying Falwell was a “mercenary and must be killed.” He added, “The death of that man is a religious duty, but his case should not be tied to the Christian community.” There’s you FATAW!
This religion is the counterfeit to the True and Living God and will be the ruling diabolical religion in the End Times!
Thanks Darren Posted Facebook and sent letter to everyone
Those who arrogantly “BELIEVE”, instead of humbly admitting that they honestly “DON’T KNOW”, pave the way for the vilest practitioner’s of evil to hijack their fairytale based religions and justify the crimes of the worlds most disgusting minds.