In the 21st century, Islam faces challenges: social, economic, political and theological: 9/11, 7/7 and the birth of Al-Qa’idah; wars in the East and Islamophobia in the west. And then there is the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). With real concerns that youth in South Africa are becoming susceptible to the ideologies of this extremist group, VOC will launch a special series called The ISIS Files. In this series hosted by Shafiq Morton, we ask the basic questions – who is ISIS? What are its origins? What is the so-called Caliphate?

The five part series starts on Monday 8 June from 7pm to 8pm and will conclude on Tuesday 16th June with a question and answer session. VOC listeners can SMS their questions throughout the week and the answers will be provided in the final programme by the panellists. The show will draw on the expertise of various scholars in the field of Islam and politics.

The programme topics include:
Monday 08 June – Historical background and the extremist beliefs underpinning ISIS
Tuesday 09 June – The socio-political origins and development of ISIS
Wednesday 10 June – Al Qaidah enters Iraq
Monday 15 June – What is the caliphate and the Maqasid of Shari’ah?
Tuesday 16th June – Questions and answers

VOC’s series comes as a group of organisations and scholars look to avert the threat of ISIS on South Africa’s shores. Two weeks ago, a national unified khutbah was delivered to inform the Muslim community that there have recently been South Africans who have joined or attempted to join ISIS. Some South African Muslims that have gone to Iraq and Syria went to fight with ISIS, while others emigrated to live in territory controlled by the group.

This coalition have discussed a number of steps that Muslim community leadership are taking and will take in order to address this attraction and engage with the spurious discourse of ISIS which it claims is based on Islam. The vast majority of Muslim scholars around the world have clearly condemned ISIS and have categorically stated that it does not represent Islam or the Shariah. VOC