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Jamiatul Ulama weighs into IS

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As global Muslim leaders continue to rebuke the actions of the Islamic State (IS), the Jamiatul Ulama South Africa has added its voice in condemning the reported acts of  brutality and mass murders of the people of Iraq and Syria. The IS, or ISIS as they were formally known, is a group said to be led by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi who have declared an Islamic state or caliphate.

A caliphate is an aspiration of Muslims who reflect of the golden era
of Islam that was characterised by sound rule of law, protection of
rights of non-hostile minorities as well as the entrenchment of
justice and equity.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Jamiatul Ulema SA secretary general Maulana Ebrahim Bham denounced the group’s efforts to ethnically cleanse and torture minority groups in Iraq and Syria.

“Warfare does not absolve the members of any Islamic caliphate, state  or entity from the responsibility of observance of human rights and  the rules of engagement where women, children and the elderly as well as all civilian non-combatants, their lives and property, are never targeted but safeguarded,” said Bham.

“It therefore comes strange to us that an Islamic state would be
founded on atrocities, massacres and extra-judicial punishments that
include summary executions of individuals suspected of crimes.”

There are widespread reports that IS may be a terror threat created by the United State’s CIA. Last month, former CIA agent  Edward Snowden revealed that the leader of the IS, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was trained in Israel. Snowden claimed the American CIA and the British Intelligence collaborated with the Israeli Mossad to create a terrorist organization that is able to attract all extremists of the world to one place, using a strategy called “the hornet’s nest”.

According to Bham, many years of foreign policies “that prop up client regimes and illegally wage imperial wars of occupation have resulted in alienation and radicalism”.

“It is this phenomenon that has brooked  groups harbouring a sense of humiliation, leading to vengeance and giving rise to militarism and the upheavals we see in the Middle East,” he noted.

“Regardless of this reality, we see no reason why the Islamic State
can position itself as a political order with an attractive prospect
for the masses when their record of governance is no better than
those polities it seeks to replace.” VOC


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