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Scholar debunks claims in ISIS letter

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A prominent South African scholar has demystified the spurious contents of a letter purported to have been sent by a South African now living in the so called Islamic State (ISIS); the second such message to have appeared within the last week. The scathing letter, signed by Port Elizabeth born Rashid Moosagie, contains a flurry of condemnations against the South African Muslim community.

Directed at family and colleagues, the letter allegedly serves as an explanation behind his ‘migration’ to the war-torn region, as well as a detailing of life under the rule of ISIS. Apart from recounting his life and supposed “awakening”, Moosagie also criticises the state of Islam within South Africa, brandishing the Sufi, Mouloodi and the Tabligh Jamaat sects as being Kufr.

Takfir

Whilst the letter may have been full of praise for ISIS, Sheikh Fakhruddin Owaisi was keen to stress that the radical group’s ideology was one built on takfir, or a declaring of others as disbelievers. He said the theology of groups like ISIS, Boko Haram, and al Qaeda were built on this concept, with recruits convinced that everyone who shared opposing views to their own could be considered a disbeliever, hence waging Jihad against them was permissible.

“They are making it as if every Muslim in his lifetime needs to be part of some military campaign, and that is not really true. Jihad was prescribed in Islam as a necessary action to deal with enemies and those who wish to fight you. It is a defence against those who are fighting us. If nobody is fighting us, we don’t need to fight anyone,” he explained.

The concept of takfir in itself is considered a serious matter within Islam, where such judgement is largely forbidden for Muslims. The exception arises in instances when individuals reject vital aspects of the religion entirely.

Having studied the contents of the message, Owaisi was adamant that the contents were built on “blanket statements and misinformation”. In the letter, Moosagie highlighted ISIS’s intentions to reinstitute the practice of slavery, particularly in relation to women, further condemning the local ulema for their rejection of the concept. Owaisi said this was a clear indication of the group’s clear lack of religious understanding.

Muslim secularism

Apart from their brutal campaign to simultaneously wage war on the West and expanding a self-styled ‘caliphate’, ISIS’s blatant disregard for human rights within its territory have also been widely condemned. Whilst beheadings and other cruel executions have made headlines, those living within the state also live under an extremely harsh and radical form of sharia law, with women and children facing the brunt of oppression.

Whilst Moosagie had levelled criticism at both the SA government and local Muslim community, Owaisi said the values enshrined within the country’s constitution meant that South African could be construed as far more Islamic than what was seen in this so called Islamic State.

“What I pick up is that it is just about forcing certain laws of Islam on people. We couldn’t stop the youth by going to clubs through persuasion, so we now force them to stay away. We will force the women to where the hijab, we will force everybody to make salaah etc. It is really a psychotic, paranoid type of obsessive understanding of shariah,” he said.

He further questioned why anyone living in relative religious comfort would willingly give that up for oppression and discomfort in conflict stricken-Syria and Iraq.

“Even Moosagie writes in his letter that he agrees Syria right now is like hell, and South Africa is like heaven. Then he says it is the hell and heaven of Dajaal, and he would rather be in the hell of Syria than the heaven on SA. This is really their type of extremist thinking,” he expressed.

Jihad

The letter in question also delves into the issue of jihad, declaring it the most fundamental part of Islam. Owaisi was critical of this, insisting that group’s like ISIS were keen to make conflict a ‘part and parcel of Islam’, when in fact Muslims need stray away from such conflict. He said the best form of jihad a Muslim could undertake was that of Islamic dawah.

“We want to say very clearly to them that this (the ISIS ideology) is not Islam, and we reject this nonsense. That letter can be sent back to Mr. Moosagie and ISIS,” he concluded. VOC


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4 comments

  1. yes sheikh fakhruddin is correct, its a pity though that when the syrian debacle first unfolded the majority of ulema and ulema bodies without looking at the geo-political issues flung themselves wholesale behind the "rebels" who were supported and armed by the usa eu saudis gulf states and tens of thousands of foreign fighters

    of course the assad regime is no angel but compared with the rest of north african states and gulf states syria was "heaven"

    the rebel fsa joined and morphed into al nusra isil isis now "islamic state"

    its been proven for eg by the united nations that the chemical weapons were used by these al nusra scum thats why for eg the casualties were only the elderly and children, none of these rogues were killed by chemical weapons!!

    its only now lately, ie last 3 months or so that some of our ulema and bodies have decided to have one foot in the anti takfiri fold, mostly because they have been "upstaged", have been left with muck on their faces or have themselves been labelled out of the fold of islam etc

  2. بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

    “Owaisi said the values enshrined within the country’s constitution meant that South African could be construed as far more Islamic than what was seen in this so called Islamic State.”

    South Africa rules by man made Democratic laws and Democracy is shirk because MP’s are chosen to legislate laws and legislation is for Allah alone.

    “Legislation is not but for Allah . He has commanded that you worship not except Him. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.”
    12:40

    Those who prefer the legislation of man over the legislation of Allah are kaafir.

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