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ISIS sends letter to South Africa

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Johannesburg-based Muslim satellite radio broadcaster, Channel Islam International (CII) , is in possession of a document that has reportedly been sent by a group of South Africans, both male and female, who have joined the Islamic State (ISIS).

The document is specifically addressed to South African Islamic scholars, said to be those who have spoken out against the group. This is also against the light that last month a Grade 10 High School girl from Kenwyn, Cape Town, was apprehended whilst en-route to Syria via Turkey to join ISIS. It is believed, but cannot be confirmed, that other young South Africans have tried to join ISIS.

The eight page letter is reproduced in its entirety below this article.

CII Broadcasting has confirmed on its on its website that the letter was forwarded by a South African who is currently in Syria with ISIS, although the name of the person does not appear on the document. It is not known if the document carries any weight with ISIS leadership.

The document challenges South African Muslim scholars to visit the Islamic State and to assess for themselves what the situation is all about, instead of relying on western media – or what it calls Jewish media – for their information.

Senior scholars, including Moulana Shabier Saloojee, Mufti Radha-ul-Haq of Darul Uloom Zakarriyah, Maulana Abdul Hamid Ishaq of the Darul Uloom in Azaadville, Maulana Ebrahim Bham of the Jamiatul Ulama South Africa, the Cape-based Muslim Judicial Council and others have all condemned the the Islamic State and its version of the Shari’ah, the Sacred Law, as barbaric and un-Islamic.

ISIS has also been condemned out of hand by Sunni scholars world-wide who have issued fatwas, or religious edicts, against it.

A large gathering of concerned Muslims was addressed by some of the above scholars last month at a mosque in Roshnee, south of Johannesburg. The public meeting highlighted the ills of the neo-Islamic State under the leadership of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. The meeting also discussed the ramifications of young South Africans being lured to join ISIS.

At the gathering the South African scholars defined the institution of jihad – the major jihad being spiritual introspection – under strictly prescribed conditions, but found serious fault in the practices carried out in the name of ISIS. They encouraged young Muslims to rather involve themselves in learning about Islam properly.

According to Cii, it seems as if the letter is a response to some of the accusations leveled at ISIS during this meeting.

The letter writer, reportedly embedded within ISIS, claimed that it was penned in the spirit of love and concern. “We write this letter to you out of deep love and concern for you as brothers and sisters in islam (sic). It is concerning for us that you are being deceived and misguided by people claiming to have knowledge of what the khilafah is and what is happening in Dawlatul Islamia.”

The writer also evoked the history of Salahuddin Ayyubi, the hero of the Crusades and conqueror of Jerusalem in the year 1187, and claims (somewhat incorrectly as Salahuddin enjoyed the patronage of the Abbasid Caliph) that he too was opposed by the majority of Muslim scholars.

The document attempts set the record straight on the “hornet’s nest” theory.

This was when reports emerged in 2014 that a former employee at the US National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, had revealed that British, US and Israeli intelligence had worked together to create ISIS. The formulation was to attract Islamic extremists from all over the world to one place, using a strategy called “the hornet’s nest”.

The document, addressed to the scholars of South Africa, goes on to state that South Africans should desist from commenting on the Islamic State if they have not seen, “the only first-hand evidence available.”

It claimed that those who had emigrated to the Islamic state “come from multiple educational backgrounds, from religious scholars to workers ”.

The writer refuted the accusation of mass takfir against ISIS, its branding Muslims who disagree with it as unbelievers with their blood being permissible to spill. The document denied that people had been dragged off to be executed for not pledging allegiance to ISIS.

It appears as if those who have left South Africa have no intention of returning to their homeland as the document refers to those “who were once south african (sic)”.

With regards to having qualified scholars in their ranks to carry out Sacred Law competently, the writer claimed that they were present, but had remained silent due to the implications of possible reprisals against family members in their countries of origin.

letter 1


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