Last month, Islamic State or ISIS claimed responsibility for a spate of high-profile attacks in cities such as Istanbul, Dhaka, Baghdad and Medina. Unlike previous targets such as Brussels and Paris, the recent attacks were squarely aimed at Muslim-majority countries.
With these attacks claiming the lives of Muslims and occurring in the holy month of Ramadan, a new debate has ensued: Is ISIS really ‘Islamic’ as it declares itself to be? Or has ISIS, in fact, revealed much of its strategies, goals – and ultimately, how its brand of extremism can and should be countered?
Targeting Muslims in the first instance may be puzzling to many. If ISIS hopes to draw more Muslims into its cosmic struggle to uphold the caliphate, killing fellow Muslims seems an error in strategy. Several commentators have been quick to highlight that this shows that ISIS is not Islamic and has nothing to do with Islam.
Such a defensive reaction is not without basis. Islam, after all, has a well-developed tradition that puts universally-held values such as peace, mercy and compassion at the heart of its teaching. These ethical principles have guided the conduct of a large majority of Muslims over the last 1,400 years.
And they continue to shape the moderate form of Islam as upheld by transmitters of the religious tradition to this day. The condemnation of ISIS by thousands of prominent Muslim scholars – including the world’s largest Muslim organisation, the Nahdlatul Ulama of Indonesia – represents this strand of mainstream Islam.
A makeshift memorial to Ataturk airport employees who were killed in Istanbul on June 28. (Photo: AFP)
But addressing the threat of ISIS may require more than the mere assertion that ISIS is not Islamic.
It is crucial to understand why ISIS is able to recruit individuals and draw support and sympathy from some Muslims. In part it has to do with non-religious factors. These may include the sense of frustration at the unresolved political quagmire in the Muslim world, and the need for adventure among socially-disconnected and alienated youths.
But some factors may lie in the ability of ISIS to latch onto pre-existing narratives located within the Muslim religious imagination. It is the latter that requires Muslims to take serious stock of how Islam has been taught, understood and socialised in certain circles.
JIHAD AND THE ABUSE OF TRADITION
One aspect that requires critical attention is the utilisation of the religious tradition by ISIS. Firstly, ISIS resurrects medieval rulings and opinions of past scholars, de-contextualises and fossilises them.
One example is ISIS leader al-Baghdadi’s call for Muslims to perform the ‘hijrah’ (migration) “from wherever you are to the Islamic State, from dar-ul-kufr (land of the infidels) to dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam)”. This call, issued in the ISIS newsletter Dabiq, is reminiscent of a fatwa issued by a 16th century jurist, al-Wansharisi, who declared that it is obligatory for Muslims to migrate to Muslim-controlled regions – but if they had no choice but to reside in non-Muslim lands, then they must not be in solidarity with non-Muslims and must engage in jihad (struggle).
ISIS supporters who perpetrated the Paris attacks on Nov 13, 2015, which killed at least 129 people, were EU citizens. (Photo: Reuters)
ISIS, however, has no regard for context: Al-Wansharisi wrote in a milieu of empires, where Christian-Muslim rivalry shaped the religious imagination soon after the Muslims had lost the Iberian Peninsula to Christian conquests. Nor does ISIS highlight that the vast majority of the ulama today have rejected this paradigm of thought by declaring it a remnant of the past.
In 1935 in Banjarmasin, Indonesia, the Nahdlatul Ulama declared that Muslims were no longer obliged to establish the ‘daulah islamiyyah’ (Islamic state) but instead, it was incumbent upon them to uphold the paradigm of the pluralistic nation-state, that is, ‘al-jumhuriyah al-Indonisiyah (the Indonesian state).
EXPLOITING THE APOCALYPSE
Secondly, ISIS latches on to the apocalyptic imagination of some Muslims. It is not surprising that its English-language propaganda magazine was named Dabiq – a location in Syria where a cosmic battle between Muslim and anti-Muslim forces has been prophesied, as recorded in medieval apocalyptic writings.
In fact, end-time prophecies are a consistent feature in the preaching of many contemporary extremist movements. When the Americans were invading Afghanistan in 2001, several Muslims saw the Taliban as the ‘black flag army’ that would usher in the coming of the ‘Mahdi’ (end-time messiah in Muslim theology) who would defeat the ‘Dajjal’ (antichrist).
Such imageries continue to inform Muslims who cannot make sense of geo-political conflicts happening in the Middle East. Popular preachers fill the gap through eschatological explanations. The strategists in ISIS are well aware of this, and it is no coincidence that the black flag was hoisted as a symbol.
What this shows is that political turmoil allows for certain religious imagination to be evoked. This may explain why ISIS does not discriminate between Muslim and non-Muslim targets.
In particular, a Muslim country governed by legal and political institutions such as parliamentary democracy, is painted as un-Islamic. Muslims who reside in and support such institutions are cast as collaborators of a ‘taghut’ (idolatrous) system. They are therefore legitimate targets, including the Saudi government for being a close ally of the United States; hence, the attack in Medina is not unthinkable.
In Medina, at least 4 people were killed in a July 4 suicide bombing near the Prophet’s Mosque, one of the holiest places in Islam. (Photo: Reuters)
For ISIS, undermining stability is a primary goal for chaos to reign and an Islamic State to finally emerge.
Typically, a terror attack will be followed by panic, fear and anger. This will create a climate of anxiety where mutual suspicion envelops societal relationship. Non-Muslims may be driven to accuse Muslims of being collectively responsible, as Muslims are put on the defensive to constantly deny that these acts of terror have anything to do with them or their religion.
This works to the advantage of the extremist agenda. Mutual suspicion will often lead to further distancing and discriminatory practices. They heighten the existing ‘siege-mentality’ in some Muslims, making them susceptible to the view that that the world is really ‘against Muslims/Islam’ and that Muslims have to defend their dignity.
Groups like ISIS then provide ready platforms for disgruntled Muslims to take their sentiments to their violent conclusion.
DEMONISING ‘DEVIANTS’ FROM ISLAM
Thirdly, ISIS feeds on sectarian thinking. Those who are puzzled by ISIS’ attacks on fellow Muslims ignore two important facts: One, Muslim history is full of examples of sectarian conflicts that started soon after the death of Prophet Muhammad and, two, the main targets of ISIS are often the Shi’a and other Muslim minorities who are considered as deviants or heretics.
The major attack in Baghdad recently that killed nearly 300 was aimed at the Shi’a community. In fact, Dabiq’s thirteenth issue released early this year was devoted to denouncing the ‘Rafidah’ – a pejorative term used on the Shi’a who were said to have originated from Abdullah ibn Saba’, a Jewish convert to Islam in 7th century who intended to divide the Muslim community.
This Iraqi man’s sons were killed in a suicide bombing that ripped through Baghdad’s shopping district of Karrada on July 3. (Photo: AFP)
Again, the use of tradition to propagate myths that inform sectarian thinking – albeit fabricated, but widely circulated in certain anti-Shi’a Wahhabi circles – is an unmistakable strategy employed by ISIS.
Here, the nexus between sectarian attitudes such as ‘takfir’ (excommunication or declaring someone out of Islam) and extremism requires serious attention. This tendency is often seen in puritanical forms of Islam, such as Wahhabism.
Several scholars have noted the similarities between the conduct of ISIS – such as beheading, keeping slaves and its anti-Shi’a and anti-Sufi (mystical branch within Islam) attitudes – with the ideas promoted within Wahhabism. Hence, ISIS’ destruction of historical sites, such as the purported tomb of Prophet Jonah in Mosul, Iraq last year, was not surprising – it was equivalent to the destruction of notable early Muslims’ tombs and historical sites in Saudi Arabia, where Wahhabism is the country’s official creed.
Yet, ISIS cannot simply be identified as Wahhabism, even if they share many commonalities in thinking. Far more important, and urgent, is to identify the narratives employed that generate supremacist attitudes, divisive behaviour and cultish adherence to an in-group that excludes and demonises the ‘others’.
RAMADAN AND JIHAD
Fourthly, violence is not something that is foreign to the ISIS worldview which promotes Muslim ‘chivalry’ in its fight to implement what it considers to be the only legitimate form of governance.
In fact, ISIS once again employs tradition to spur Muslims to fight in the month of Ramadan. Al Fatihin, a recently launched newsletter meant for the Malay-speaking world, carries the message for jihad during Ramadan by Abu Hamza Muhajir, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in 2010.
For Muslims, Ramadan is indeed a month for jihad. This jihad, however, is understood as a struggle against base desires through acts of devotion such as fasting and alms-giving. But for ISIS, jihad is understood in its distorted form of attacking and killing the supposed enemies of Islam.
Displaced children who fled from ISIS violence receive free food during Ramadan at a restaurant in Baghdad, Iraq (Photo: Reuters)
ISIS would point to the fact that the first battle that Muslims engaged with and led by Prophet Muhammad was the Battle of Badr, which took place in the month of Ramadan in 624 CE. Although the Muslims were not the aggressors and were defending Medina from the Meccan attack, ISIS’ invoking of jihad in Ramadan was a calculated move.
The Battle of Badr ended with a Muslim victory, despite being outnumbered – hence, it serves ISIS’ propaganda to inflame radicalised Muslims and spur them to launch attacks, with the promise of victory and the rewards of Paradise.
GOING BEYOND RHETORIC, TO CRITICAL THOUGHT
It is clear that dismissing ISIS as “nothing to do with Islam” may not address the lure that ISIS has for some Muslims. What is needed is a deep and critical understanding of Muslim history, and how certain aspects of the tradition are being utilised, albeit in distorted ways. This may explain the apparent paradox: Why ISIS has been able to attract certain Muslims while, at the same time, targeting fellow Muslims.
Knowing this will compel Muslims to go beyond making rhetorical statements, and to begin focusing on the long-needed reform of Muslim thought.
As urged by Professor Ebrahim Moosa when he spoke in Singapore at a conference in April, the key to dealing with extremism is to engage with the tradition in a critical way. Tradition is not static; it evolves and new traditions can emerge. Muhammad Qasim Zaman in his book, Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age, highlighted this evolving nature of tradition, including the views of those whom we consider as the gatekeepers of tradition. While Islam as a faith remains constant, its application and understanding are diverse and often competing.
Hence, a way to combat extremism in Muslim circles is to firstly familiarise Muslims with the diversity within Islam and the evolving nature of tradition. Second is to allow room for the scrutiny of Muslim thought to ensure that extremist ideas do not get shielded and passed off as “the Islamic view”, and therefore, beyond reproach.
Criticising religious ideas is not equivalent to undermining religion as extremists would have us believe. Populating the religious discourse with competing ideas may be a good way to demonstrate the diversity in religious thought that can allow good ideas to trump bad ideas.
One way to combat extremism is to familiarise Muslims with the diversity within Islam, says the writer. (Photo: AFP)
Ultimately, diversity in religious discourse will demonstrate how religion can be an inspiration for peace and harmony, as well as a tool for violence and domination. Muslims will then be called to make a decision to uphold one and isolate the other.
Given that there are enough resources within the vast reservoir of Muslim tradition to promote peaceful co-existence and acceptance of diversity, there is hope that the vast majority of Muslims will remain moderate and tolerant. This, however, will require firm leadership and a conducive political climate that is able to keep extremism in check while ensuring that voices of reason prevail.
Source: ChannelNewsAsia
