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Tag: jihad

  • Mufti: Beware Of Messages That Misquote The Quran, Prophetic Sayings And Traditions To Justify Acts Of Violence

    Mufti: Beware Of Messages That Misquote The Quran, Prophetic Sayings And Traditions To Justify Acts Of Violence

    Singapore’s top Muslim leader has called on his community to be wary of messages that misquote the Quran as well as prophetic sayings and traditions to justify acts of violence.

    In his Friday (Sept 29) sermon delivered at all mosques here, Mufti Fatris Bakaram squarely refuted messages in ISIS’s recent propaganda video featuring Singaporean fighter Megat Shahdan Abdul Samad – and highlighted how they have grossly distorted Islamic teachings.

    The 39-year-old, who has been fighting on the frontlines in Iraq and Syria for four years now, had in the clip urged others to join him on the the terror group’s path of destruction, calling this “the path of the prophets”.

    Shahdan also claimed that Muslims must be hostile to believers of other faiths, and claimed he had answered the call of jihad and was under the leadership of a caliph.

    He also believed that anyone who followed ISIS and died while fighting for the terror group would die a martyr, noted Dr Fatris.

    “All of this is completely wrong. Islam has never considered the killing of innocent lives as jihad,” he said. “Islam does not allow for violence and oppression to prevail, places of worship to be destructed and heritage sites to be destroyed and blown up.”

    Those who participated in these crimes are under the “skewed impression” they will die as martyrs.

    And even worse, said Dr Fatris, they justify these heinous acts by misquoting Islam, the Quran and prophetic traditions.

    “It is obvious that what is being committed by ISIS is not just a crime towards Islam, but towards the global community,” he added.

    The Mufti made clear that ISIS’ actions are fundamentally against ethics and guidelines taught by the Prophet Muhammad.

    Dr Fatris said: “Now, more than ever, we will need to ensure that ourselves, families, and our beloved community have the religious resilience to challenge the messages that violates Islamic teachings and endanger the lives of humanity.”

    It is the responsibility of every Muslim to understand religious texts comprehensively, and the community should not simply and uncritically accept information from unknown sources without verification, he added.

    “Failure to comprehend the context of religious texts can lead to problematic and inaccurate interpretations,” said Dr Fatris, pointing out that various verses in the Quran have specific context, and cannot be applied to all circumstances.

    He added: “Applying these texts that are meant to be specific in nature to any situation is considered a deviance.”

    Dr Fatris urged the community to find out where and from whom their family members are obtaining religious instruction from in the hopes of protecting them from deviant teachings.

    The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) in a statement on Friday expanded on Dr Fatris’ sermon, pointing out the problematic aspects of the ISIS video.

    Among other things, it highlighted how Shahdan intended to encourage and justify violence against non-Muslims, even when Muslims live in peace and harmony among them – which “goes strongly against the Quranic principle of reciprocating peace and harmony”.

    It added: “What Megat Shahdan has done is therefore blasphemous and un-Islamic, as it taints and distorts the intentions of our prophets to suit ISIS’ violent narratives.”

    Shahdan had parroted ISIS doctrine of encouraging Muslims to migrate to “Islamic territories”, noted Muis.

    “However, credible Muslim scholars worldwide have always maintained that Muslims should continue to be contributing citizens and co-exist harmoniously with other communities in diverse, multi-religious societies,” it said, adding that scholars in both the classical and contemporary periods, have said that there is no need for Muslims to migrate if they can practise their religion where they live.

    In Singapore, it said, the community is privileged to have the Administration of Muslim Law Act, which helps guide, support and ease religious life here.

    The Association of Adult Religious Class Students (Perdaus), citing the ISIS video as well, also released a statement on Friday, saying it rejects and condemns any expressions of religious violence and hatred.

    It believes an “open, consultative and evidence-based discussion on sensitive issues” is the way forward, and stressed the imporatnce for both Muslims and non-Muslims to learn about Islam from credible teachers under the Asatizah Recognition Scheme.

    Perdaus added that it regularly ensures teachers’ and students’ understanding and practice of Islam are deeply rooted in the local context.

    “We strongly believe that an Islamic education with an accredited institution and under credible teachers is an essential part of life in multicultural Singapore and should be made accessible to all,” it said.

    “Education plays a critical part in stomping out radical ideas and teachings, especially amongst those who have no one to turn to for answers.”

     

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com

  • Crisis In Rakhine State Evoked Strong Emotions Across The Muslim World Drawing In ISIS And Al-Qaeda

    Crisis In Rakhine State Evoked Strong Emotions Across The Muslim World Drawing In ISIS And Al-Qaeda

    The plight of the Rohingya, an Islamic minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, has evoked strong emotions across the Muslim world.

    Many countries have protested against the persecution of the community, following a violent crackdown by the Myanmar army that left hundreds dead and sparked an exodus of more than 410,000 people from Rakhine to Bangladesh.

    But as rights groups urge world leaders to impose sanctions on Myanmar’s military, which is accused of “ethnic cleansing”, a darker danger lies ahead.

    Counter-terrorism experts say the crisis has attracted the attention of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as Muslim militants and hardliners in Indonesia and Malaysia.

    This may result in another longstanding conflict in South-east Asia, following the ongoing siege in the southern Philippine city of Marawi by Islamist militants.

    Echoing its strategy in southern Philippines, ISIS has routinely, through its online publication Dabiq, claimed that it plans to establish a base in Bangladesh to launch revenge attacks on the Myanmar government over its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya.

    Malaysian counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said earlier this week that ISIS is exploiting the Rohingya crisis to recruit more fighters, particularly from South-east Asia.

    Indeed, latest developments out of Kuala Lumpur have revealed that a group of Malaysians had travelled to Myanmar, via Bangladesh and Thailand, to take on government troops there.

    Malaysian police in Kelantan state, which shares a border with southern Thailand, told news agency Bernama that it has identified more than 100 “rat trails” used for smuggling, and has stepped up patrols there to prevent the illegal entry of Rohingya and “untoward incidents”.

    Meanwhile in Indonesia, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) had called for “jihadists” to travel to Rakhine to fight on behalf of the Rohingya. The FPI has shown that it has the ability to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people, as seen in the many rallies it led against former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Chinese-Christian politician, for insulting Islam earlier this year.

    FPI spokesman Slamet Maarif was quoted by The Australian newspaper earlier this month as saying that the group is prepared to wage “jihad”, or a holy war, in Myanmar if the need arises. “That is why one of the main requirements for our recruits is the willingness to die as a martyr,” he said.

    Centre for Radicalism and Deradicalisation Studies executive director Adhe Bhakti said the real danger for Indonesia lies in whether elements of the Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local terrorist network with ties to ISIS, join the fray. “More influential groups in the context of ‘jihad’ such as the JAD have yet to appeal for fighters. If they do, that may pose a greater risk,” said Mr Adhe.

    Islamist militant groups have previously exploited the Rohingya crisis for their cause, notably in 2012 and 2015, but this current conflict has drawn wider attention.

    Mr Iftekharul Bashar, an associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the crisis is unfolding at a time when ISIS is losing much of its territory in the Middle East and is trying to expand its hold in South Asia and South-east Asia.

    “The recent siege of Marawi… shows that ISIS penetration in the Rakhine state conflict cannot be ruled out,” he added.

    Datuk Ayob warned that Myanmar’s proximity to Malaysia would encourage ISIS to tap the conflict in Rakhine. “Myanmar is closer to Malaysia than Syria and the southern Philippines… and now Rakhine has become their latest destination for ‘jihad’,” he told Bernama news.

    The resurgent Al-Qaeda, which was behind the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, has also started to make its move, issuing a statement on Sept 12 calling for attacks against the Myanmar government over the Rohingya.

    While most of the attention by security agencies has been on ISIS, Mr Bashar warned that Al-Qaeda, and its affiliate in the Indian subcontinent known by the acronym AQIS, is equally dangerous.

    AQIS has not carried out any major attacks in Bangladesh in the past few years, but it has recently mentioned the Myanmar military as a key target, added Mr Bashar. “Although the majority of Muslims still support a peaceful settlement with Rohingya returning to their homeland, a smaller segment thinks that an armed ‘jihad’ is the only solution left to end the plight of the Rohingya.”

     

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/

  • May The Deceased SMRT Staff Be Granted Paradise For Their Jihad In Providing For Their Family

    May The Deceased SMRT Staff Be Granted Paradise For Their Jihad In Providing For Their Family

    Do you know that going to work to seek nafkah was described as “jihad” by our Prophet s.a.w?

    Nabi S.A.W was once asked by his companion regarding a man who was physically strong and was working tirelessly on a heavy labour: the companion of Rasul asked : “Ya Rasulullah if only this strong man joins us for Jihad in the way of Allah”

    Nabi s.a.w answered: “If he works hard to feed his kids, he is in Jihad.. if he works hard to feed his old parents he is in Jihad.. and if he is working to feed himself, to exalt himself from begging then he is also in Jihad in the way of Allah”

    We hope that those who lost their life in the accident yesterday attained husnul khatimah as mujahidin in the way of Allah.. and most importantly i think it also reminds us of our daily struggle at work, our own jihad.. and to always reallign our niat so that we truly are upon Allah’s way da-iman wa abadan..

    wallahu’alam..

     

    Source: Khairul Anwar

  • Jihadi John Unmasked: Mohammed Emwazi – The Murderer From London

    Jihadi John Unmasked: Mohammed Emwazi – The Murderer From London

    He is one of the world’s most wanted militants and the symbol of brutality by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

    Known as ‘Jihadi John’, the black-clad militant brandishing a knife and speaking with an English accent in videos by ISIS is said to be Mohammed Emwazi, a 26-year-old Londoner, according to Washington Post.

    Here is a look at the man behind the mask:

    Born to a middle-class family

    Emwazi was born in Kuwait but moved to Britain with his family when he was six years old. He arrived in London speaking only a few words of English. His father found work as a minicab and delivery van driver, while his mother was a housewife.

    The family live in a small apartment in the west London neighbourhood in Queen’s Park. Emwazi has two younger sisters and a younger brother.

    He was reported to have occasionally prayed at a mosque in Greenwich, south-east London.

    Polite and mild-mannered in school

    The young Emwazi was described as polite and mild-mannered. He appeared to embrace British life, playing football regularly and supporting Manchester United. The Daily Mail newspaper published a picture of Emwazi smiling and sitting cross-legged on the grass with his classmates from the St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school in Maida Vale, West London.

    Despite his limited command of the English language, Emwazi was popular in school as he was often engaged in sports, especially football, with his classmates.

    He was the only Muslim in class and one former classmate recalled a lesson when Emwazi got up from his seat and shared with the class about his religion. “He wrote Arabic on the board to show us what it looked like..He showed us a religious text and spoke about what his religion was about,” said the classmate.

    When he grew older, Emwazi was known among friends as polished and having a penchant for wearing stylish clothes while adhering to the tenets of his Islamic faith. He had a beard and was mindful of making eye contact with women, friends said.

    Influenced by radicals in university

    After finishing primary school in 1999, he moved to Quintin Kynaston Community Academy in St John’s Wood, where he became more observant of his religion and began wearing more traditional Islamic attire. But it was after he was admitted to the University of Westminster to study computing that his behaviour began to change, according to media reports.

    The university has been linked to several proponents of radical Islam and Emwazi appeared to have fallen under their sway, it was reported.

    Enwazi graduated in 2009 in information technology. However, instead of building a computing career, he ended up on the radar of the British intelligence service MI5.

    “Harassed” by British intelligence service

    Emwazi claimed he was harassed by MI5 over a planned trip to Tanzania in May 2009. He reportedly emailed Cage charity, which campaigns for those detained on terrorism charges, to say that he had been harassed by MI5 which tried to recruit him as an informant.

    Asim Qureshi, research director of Cage, said after Emwazi’s graduation from university in 2009, he travelled to Tanzania for what he said was a safari holiday with two friends – a German convert to Islam named Omar and another man called Abu Talib.

    But the trio were refused entry and held by police once they arrived in Tanzania. They were later put on a plane to Amsterdam, where Emwazi claimed he was questioned by a MI5 agent called Nick. The British officer accused him of planning to travel to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda linked militant group.

    “He knew everything about me; where I lived, what I did, the people I hanged around with. He also believed that I was lying and I wanted to go to Somalia,” Emwazi wrote in his email to Cage.

    “I said to him that ‘I have just shown you my ticket for going to Tanzania’. Now the argument had started going back and forth, same thing again and again, like in a circle. He just wanted to force it out of my mouth that I intended to go to Somalia. But I stood firm and maintained that I had no reason to go to Somalia.

    “He said that he was going to keep in touch and call me regularly. He even said that he would try to visit me,” he said.

    None of the events mentioned by Emwazi have been verified by the British intelligence service.

    “A prisoner in London”

    After the Tanzania episode, Emwazi moved back to his birthplace of Kuwait. He had found a job working for a computer company but he returned to London on two occasions, the second time in June 2010 to finalise his wedding plans to a woman in Kuwait.

    According to Mr Quershi, Emwazi was stopped by counter-terrorism officers in Britain who detained him and took his fingerprints. He was also reportedly stopped from travelling back to Kuwait the following day while intelligence officers investigated him.

    In a frustrated email to Mr Quershi at the time, Emwazi allegedly wrote: “I had a job waiting for me and marriage to get started.”

    “I feel like a prisoner, only not in a cage, in London. A person imprisoned & controlled by security service men, stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace and country, Kuwait,” he wrote.

    Sympathy for other militants

    Besides the alleged harassment by MI5, Emwazi was reportedly upset when an al-Qaeda terrorist was convicted for the attempted murder of US nationals in Afghanistan. US-trained neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui became a cause celebre in the Muslim world after she was jailed for 86 years for a shooting which took place while she was being questioned as an al-Qaeda suspect in Afghanistan in 2008.

    Following her conviction, Emwazi was alleged to have written that he had “heard the upsetting news regarding our sister.This should only keep us firmer towards fighting for freedom and justice!”

    He has also been linked to another British militant, Bilal al Berjawi, a leader of Al-Shabaab. The Lebanese born militant travelled to Kenya in February 2009, telling his family he was heading for a safari trip. He and a friend were detained in Nairobi and sent back to London but made it to Somalia in October that year.

    So it is likely that Emwazi’s own safari trip a few months later in May, from Britain to Tanzania, set off alarms with the British security services. Berjawi was killed in Somalia in 2012 in a US drone attack.

    A quiet, intelligent ISIS militant

    Emwazi is believed to have travelled to Syria around 2012 and later joined the ISIS, the group whose barbarity he has come to symbolise. It is unclear how he managed to travel to Syria despite being on MI5 watchlist. “He was upset and wanted to start a life elsewhere,” said one of his friends.

    A former hostage said Emwazi was part of a team in charge of guarding Western hostages at a prison in Idlib, Syria, dubbed “the box”. One former hostage said Emwazi was there with two other men with British accents. Emwazi was described as quiet, intelligent and “the most deliberate”.

    One former hostage said Emwazi was obsessed with Somalia and made his captives watch videos on the Al-Shabaab militant group.

    In early 2014, the hostages were moved to a prison in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the ISIS, where they were visited often by the trio. They appeared to have taken on more powerful roles within the militant group, said the former hostages.

    ‘Jihadi John’: The face of ISIS brutality

    A video was released by ISIS in August 2014 showing a masked man raging against the United States before apparently beheading US citizen James Foley off camera.

    Dressed entirely in black, with a balaclava covering all but his eyes and the bridge of his nose, and a holster under his left arm, the man was nicknamed “Jihadi John”. He and other Britons in the ISIS were named after the Beatles.

    ‘Jihadi John’, now believed to be Emwazi, is said to be also responsible for the killings of US journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig. He also appeared in a video with Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto shortly before they were killed.

    He used the videos to threaten the West, admonish its Arab allies and taunt President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. In the video, he was often seen standing next to petrified hostages cowering in orange jump suits.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • 3 More Malaysians Arrested For Link to ISIS

    3 More Malaysians Arrested For Link to ISIS

    KUALA LUMPUR — A man and two women were picked up by police last night (Nov 21) for allegedly being involved in terrorism, said Malaysia’s national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar.

    The inspector-general of police said the arrests were made in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor by the force’s counter-terrorism division.

    Mr Khalid, in a statement, said the three suspects aged between 28 and 34 were believed to be linked with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. (Isis).

    “The first suspect, a woman, is the wife of an earlier suspected terrorist charged in court on November 11,” Mr Khalid said.

    The second suspect was an event manager in Kuala Lumpur, while the male suspect was an executive assistant.

    “All three suspects are believed to have been involved witth ISIS via Facebook,” he said.

    Mr Khalid said the three were also found to have been involved in gathering funds, which was used to send Malaysians to join Isis in Syria.

    “All three have been arrested to facilitate investigations under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012,” Mr Khalid said.

    Yesterday, a third Malaysian was charged at the Sepang Sessions Court with supporting the ISIS terrorist group.

    Mohamad Fauzee Ahmad allegedly entered Syria between June 29 and Sep 18 to lend support to terror activities involving firearms and explosives.

    The 43-year-old was reportedly seen as advancing a religious struggle in Syria.

    If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in jail, or face a fine and forfeiture of assets used in the commission of the offences under Section 130J(1)(b) of the Penal Code.

    Judge Nor Haffizah Mohd Salim reportedly set January 15 for mention. DPP Ishak Mohd Yusoff prosecuted the case.

    Fauzee is the third person to be arrested upon returning from Syria, where ISIS is operating.

    The other two arrested and charged were Muhammad Fauzi Misrak, 32, and Mohammad Na’Im Abd Rashid, 26.

    They were reportedly charged on Nov 11. Fauzi’s case is due for mention on Dec 19 while Na’Im’s case is on Dec 15.

    The duo had allegedly fought for ISIS between Dec 13 last year and July 14.

    They were arrested with 12 others between Oct 15 and Oct 17.

    On Tuesday, The Malaysian Insider reported that at least five ISIS militants had returned to Malaysia, but lack of proof was holding back police from arresting them.

    According to a senior intelligence source, under Sosma, there were a number of boxes which police needed to tick.

    “Getting statements from sources in the Middle East to confirm that a Malaysian citizen was there fighting alongside ISIS forces is insufficient,” the official said.

    “Police must build a strong case before a Malaysian suspect who fought alongside Isis forces in the Middle East can be charged in court here.”

    On Monday, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told Parliament that Malaysian ISIS fighters were returning to spread militant ideology in the country.

    He said police checks showed that those who returned were not driven by disillusionment or the desire to surrender to the Malaysian authorities, but to influence and recruit others.

    “The police are monitoring and they know, those who opted to return are doing so because they want to influence other Malaysians to join their cause, regardless if they are Muslims or not.”

    39 Malaysians have been officially identified as being involved with Isis in Syria, whose aim is to set up an Islamic caliphate in the region.

    The New Straits Times, however, reported that there were 45 Malaysians in Syria and 15 in Iraq.

    It also reported that police may have difficulty in tracing exactly how many have returned as their departure from Malaysia to Syria was not properly tracked.

    Between January and June this year, police arrested 23 people in various parts of Malaysia over alleged links to the terror group.

    The Malaysians fighting alongside Isis forces in the Middle East were influenced to take up the struggle via social media, intelligence sources previously said.

    Some, like former Kedah PAS Youth information chief Lotfi Ariffin who was killed in Syria, had not only posted about his activities with the militants on Facebook, but had issued call-to-action messages, too.

    To date, five Malaysians have been killed in action in Syria. THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com