The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Issue 340 of the Islamic State (ISIS) Al-Naba' weekly magazine, released on May 26, 2022,[1] includes an editorial which attacks "the distortion and corruption of the Islamic faith" by means of Western ideas, such as nationalism, humanism and interfaith dialogue. The editorial contends that these ideas are part of a "comprehensive war" which the unbelievers and the corrupt regimes of Islamic countries are waging against the Islamic faith and asserts that "the corruption of the Islamic faith" is the worst disaster to have afflicted the Muslims, and the only way to respond to it is by means of jihad.
Titled, "War against Belief," the editorial opens by asserting that, "The books of fake history claim that the campaigns [i.e. Crusades] and the wars against the Muslim lands were not at their foundation religious wars but rather political… economic or nationalist wars. [These claims] have accompanied the systematic distortion of the Islamic faith for which the preachers of hell are mostly responsible who have tried to corrupt the Islamic faith and to change it. And this by means of many allegations which do not begin with 'interfaith dialogue' or conclude with 'humanism' – which is the same new religion they want to impose on the people and the world and which competes with Islam in all spheres."
The editorial explains that "following decades of falsifying history and distorting the faith, groups of people have emerged who regard the 'homeland' as god which must be worshipped in place of Allah, for whose sake they equate a Muslim with an unbeliever, and to which they apply [the Islamic principle of loyalty to fellow Muslims and disavowal of non-Muslims known as] al-wala' wal-bara', whose dead they refer to as martyrs, even if they aren't Muslims, and which they favor above every other thing, including monotheism."
Asserting that "the loss of the religion and the corruption of the faith are the greatest disaster and there is none worse," the editorial further states that, "The truth which must be faced is that the tragedy of the people today lies in their religion… in polytheism and corruption of the faith." In this context it attacks "the unbelievers and the Murji'ah[2] as the writer defines them, who believe that Christians are not unbelievers and that they can also be martyrs who are worthy of entry to Paradise. This may be a reference to the claim which was voiced recently on social media that the Palestinian-American Christian Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was recently killed in Jenin is a martyr.
Claiming that "the apostasy of the Christians is an absolute fact which is not in the realm of supposition," the editorial adds that whoever contends otherwise "is behaving in an unprecedentedly insolent manner toward Allah and the Islamic faith. This is the result of black eras and decades of wars of corruption and distortion waged by the Murji'ah against Al-Surouriyyah [a Salafi political movement] and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic faith."
Another reason provided by the editorial for this so-called deviation from Islam lies in "years of learning from the mouths of preachers on the satellite channels and from sheiks of the tyrants which the Islamic State has warned against in its sermons and on its communications platforms and indicated that they constitute a danger to Islam." The editorial concludes with the assertion that today Islam is the object of a "comprehensive war" and is contending with "another episode of the fierce campaign waged by the apostates and unbelievers against the Islamic faith."
The writer claims that the conclusion to be drawn from this situation is that, "The Muslims who strive to fulfil the commandments of Allah must confront this wicked attack against the Islamic faith and there is no other way to face this war other than by means of a counter-war based on jihad in accordance with the ways of the prophets."
[1] May 26, 2022.
[2] The Murji'ah was a school of thought opposing the Muslim practice of declaring other Muslims apostates (takfir); Salafi-jihadis denounce irja' and use it as a pejorative term for Islamists whom they consider too moderate.
The full text of this post is available to subscribers.
Please login or register to request subscription information from MEMRI
