Reuters: Muslim Scholars Present Rebuttal to Islamic State

Reuters is reporting that over 120 Islamic scholars from around the world have issued an open letter denouncing Islamic State militants and refuting their religious arguments.  Many of these scholars are themselves leading Muslim voices in their own countries.

The 22-page letter, written in Arabic and heavy with quotes from the Koran and other Islamic sources, strongly condemns the torture, murder and destruction  Islamic State militants have committed in areas they control.

The Reuters report states in part:

“You have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder,” the letter said. “This is a great wrong and an offense to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world.”

[The letter’s] originality lies in its use of Islamic theological arguments to refute statements made by self-declared Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani to justify their actions and attract more recruits to their cause.

The letter is addressed to al-Baghdadi and “the fighters and followers of the self-declared ‘Islamic State'”, but is also aimed at potential recruits and imams or others trying to dissuade young Muslims from going to join the fight.

Nihad Awad of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which presented the letter in Washington on Wednesday, said he hoped potential fighters would read the document and see through the arguments of Islamic State recruiters.

“They have a twisted theology,” he said in a video explaining the letter. “They have relied many times, to mobilize and recruit young people, on classic religious texts that have been misinterpreted and misunderstood.”

Reuters describes the 126 signatories as “prominent” Sunni men from across the Muslim world — from Indonesia to Morocco, and from other countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Belgium.

Among those who signed are “the current and former grand muftis of Egypt, Shawqi Allam and Ali Gomaa, former Bosnian grand mufti Mustafa Ceric, the Nigerian Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and Din Syamsuddin, head of the large Muhammadiyah organization in Indonesia.  Eight scholars from Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the highest seat of Sunni learning, also put their names to the document.”

VEJ