Hey folks,
Today we’re going to look at Daesh or as the news calls them ISIS.
Now I could burrow into the story of the weird unique situation that allowed a group like daesh to survive, but I am going to leave that story to my buddy Will over at Political Junkie News.
What I am going to show you, is that Daesh are not very good Muslims.
So to preface, I am not a Muslim, nor am I an imam, but this does come from a report from a collection of imams qualified to discuss what does and does not follow Islamic law.
That said let’s dig in.
First of all, in Islam those who are not Muslims, but under the category of people of the scripture, which includes Jews, Christians, and important for this case Yazidis can get an extra tax, but cannot be brutally murdered, displaced and tortured.
Muslims are not supposed to do many things that ISIS has not only done, but broadcasted and bragged about.
This includes the wonderful list of horrors such as denying women their rights, forcing conversion, disfiguring the dead, and destroying the graves of prophets and companions.
ISIS also seems to lack an understanding of what jihad means.
Jihad means struggle, and is purely defensive.
Pushing smelly crusaders out of the holy land?
Jihad.
Planning to conquer the world?
Not jihad.
Jihad is not just a willy nilly thing, there are actually quite a lot of rules and it has to have a very good purpose.
You ever hear the term don’t shoot the messenger?
Well it is a common code of ethics, and part of Islamic law to not kill messengers such as emissaries, ambassadors, or diplomats.
Many imams feel this also applies to journalists and aid workers.
Despite what ISIS says, loyalty to a nation is actually permissible.
In fact, since the prophet died, Islam doesn’t require anyone to emigrate anywhere.
Also ISIS if you’re listening out there.
There are actually a lot of legal codes you forgot to read up on.
Your list of legal issues include oversimplifying Shariah matters, ignoring Islamic sciences, disallowing disagreement in Islamic scholarship, giving legal rulings without master of Arabic, cherry picking the Qur'an and Hadiths to make legal rulings, reintroducing slavery after it was abolished, and of course this all comes to the legal issue of just plain not considering the reality of contemporary times when making legal rulings.
And there is one last one, and it’s a big one.
ISIS considers itself a Caliphate.
A very important word in Islam.
I am going to pass off this particular infraction to my more politically inclined friend Will from Political Junkie News.
Thanks Will.
By the way, if you aren’t SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICAL JUNKIE NEWS.
He’s doing some really great work making today’s politics make more sense.
So to my friends out here in the west.
I don’t want you to think what ISIS is doing has anything to do with what Islam means.
It’s a huge religion, with over a thousand years of law, scholarship, and theology.
So much so, that ISIS really has little to do with what Islam is.
Almost all the people fighting ISIS are Muslims themselves, and for god’s sake help those escaping refugees.
They’re trying to get away from all this!
To counter the attention daesh has been getting, post down in the comments something cool about Islam or the Islamic world.
they invented algebra
and see what this massive religion is all about.
Thanks everyone, I’ll see you in a fortnight!