The Islamic State (IS) did not originate from
barbaric communities or prehistoric peoples. In fact, instead it is a
fundamentalist Islamic group stemming from the core of radical Islamic
jurisprudence. The organization adheres literally to the fatwas and dogma of
radical Islamist scholars, mainly Sheikh Taqi ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328).
Summary⎙ Print The Islamic State and other radical groups
found their religious underpinnings in the heart of Islamic teachings.
Author Shukur Khilkhal Posted August 12, 2014
Translator(s)Sahar Ghoussoub
This does not apply only to the IS, but to all
fundamentalist Islamic organizations and Salafist jihadists such as al-Qaeda
and its branches, the Muslim Brotherhood, Gamaa Islamiya in Egypt and,
formerly, the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia. All these movements based their
beliefs on the radical dogma of Ibn Taymiyyah.
Al-Qaeda — the forerunner of IS — mixed Salafist
ideology and political Islamic doctrine, for which the Muslim Brotherhood laid
the foundations in Egypt in the mid-1900s.
Abdullah Azzam, the spiritual father of al-Qaeda,
was one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s members in Jordan. He left the country to
fight in Afghanistan against Soviet forces.
Ibn Taymiyyah required Muslims to wage wars of
jihad against those he described as infidels, apostates, doubtful Muslims and
other classifications. The Muslim Brotherhood ideology, on the other hand,
stresses that all countries of the world are infidel states. By mixing these
two concepts, radical Islamists saw the need to wage war and establish an
Islamic caliphate.
The most important fatwa upon which IS bases its
holy war or jihad is the "Mardin" fatwa.
The historical frame of this fatwa can give us an
image of the cause of this extremism, which marked all Ibn Taymiyyah fatwas. He
was born in Mardin on the border between present-day Syria and Turkey in 1263.
When he was 7 years old, the Mongols attacked and
overran his town. Ibn Taymiyyah was moved to Damascus to live with his
grandmother. Jihadists believe that when he became an Islamic jurist, Ibn
Taymiyyah issued a fatwa encouraging the fight against Mardin and its people
(although the fatwa has been a source of disagreement among Muslim scholars for
a long time). Many hard-liners and advocates of the Salafist jihadi ideology
perceive this fatwa as a permission to wage war to impose Sharia even within
Islamic countries.
Ibn Taymiyyah had another fatwa on
"collateral damage," which stipulated that the “mujahedeen”
(fighters) who intended to target “infidels” were allowed to kill other Muslims
who might stand in the way of reaching the mujahedeen's goal.
Al-Qaeda used this fatwa to justify the killing
of large numbers of Iraqis with car bombs and improvised explosive devices
after the US invasion in 2003.
As for cutting off hands and heads, jizya tax
imposition on non-Muslims, female genital mutilation, destruction of tombs and
shrines and other practices carried out by IS, they are all enshrined in
Salafist doctrines set forth mainly by Ibn Taymiyyah. His doctrines are
gathered in a book titled “Majmu' al-Fatawa” by Ibn Taymiyyah.
The truth of the matter is that these doctrines
are taught regularly in schools and universities in many Arab countries. It is
worth mentioning that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current leader of IS — who
proclaimed himself a caliph of Muslims in Mosul — studied these doctrines in
the Faculty of Islamic Sciences in Baghdad.
Given that IS acts are based on authentic Islamic
faith [principles] and doctrines, many Islamic institutions in the Arab and
Islamic worlds have yet to condemn it. They perceive the organization’s acts as
adhering to the principles of Sharia. The only difference between the two sides
is the timing of the proclamation of the caliphate.
The only religious institution that condemned IS
is Al-Azhar. The institution does not espouse the doctrine of Ibn Taymiyyah —
known as the Hanbali School — it rather advocates the Ash’ari theology, which
is characterized by moderation. Al-Azhar is at variance with these
organizations in many of their beliefs. It has its own vision about the
concepts of jihad and the state, which differ from the doctrines espoused by
groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, IS and al-Qaeda.
