Jordanian Friday Sermon by Sheikh Bashar Sharif: There Is No Difference Whatsoever between ISIS and Secular Arabs

In a July 15 Friday sermon, Jordanian cleric Dr. Bashar Sharif said that there were two kinds of ISIS: the "pseudo-Muslim ISIS" and the "secular, 'enlightened' ISIS." In the sermon, which he delivered at the Umm Al-Ula Mosque in Amman's Al-Rashid suburb, Dr. Sharif said that "the pseudo-Muslim ISIS blows up installations and buildings and kills people, while the secular 'enlightened' ISIS blows up values and principles, and endangers the security of society, by attacking its noble morals and traditions." "There is no difference whatsoever" between them, he said. The video was posted on the Al-Saleh TV YouTube account, an Internet TV channel dedicated to Islamic sermons, "especially from the Umm Al-Ula Mosque."

Following are excerpts

Bashar Sharif: Beware of these ISIS members, who purport to be Muslims, as well as the secular people who behave like ISIS members. Indeed, my brothers, today we face two groups of ISIS. On the one hand, we have the pseudo-Muslim ISIS. They are doing what they are doing in the name of Islam, even though Islam has nothing to do with them. They are well known, and there is no need to elaborate. Their actions speak for themselves. We have often talked about them.

On the other hand, we have the secular ISIS, which practices an ideology of behavioral violence and extremism in the name of enlightenment and secularism. It is they who are in control right now. The pseudo-Muslim ISIS calls its opponents "heretical," "sinful," and "misguided," whereas the secular, "enlightened" ISIS calls its opponents "backward," "fundamentalist," and "reactionary." The pseudo-Muslim ISIS blows up installations and buildings and kills people, while the secular, "enlightened" ISIS blows up values and principles, and endangers the security of society, by attacking its noble morals and traditions. The pseudo-Muslim ISIS wants to eliminate and destroy its opponents, and the same holds true for the secular and "enlightened" ISIS. Whenever the secular ISIS loses an election, they turn against those who won and throw them into the furnace or into prison. So what is the difference between the pseudo-Muslim ISIS and the secular and "enlightened" ISIS? There is no difference whatsoever.

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Dear brothers, there was a car-ramming attack at dawn today in France. Hundreds were killed or wounded. Even before the French president made his speech, the French Council of the Muslim Faith denounced this incident, which cannot be accepted by any religion or any human being. Every Muslim who witnessed this recent incident and its victims was heartbroken. The French Council of the Muslim Faith - even before the French president - declared that it denounces and repudiates this operation, which has nothing to do with our religion or our culture. Then the French president made his speech about the incident. The French security services knew nothing about the perpetrator, except that he was a Frenchman born in Tunisia, yet despite this dearth of information, the French president said that France is being targeted by Islamic terrorism. They want to paint Islam and the Muslims with the brush of terrorism and of ISIS, regardless of what we do. The peculiar thing is that some in our midst believe this, and are deceived by this artificial culture, which is intended to defeat us from within, and to make us renounce ourselves, our culture, our religion, and all the morals, values, and laws in which we believe.

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Oh Allah, destroy the plundering Jews and the hateful Americans, along with those who support them from among our kin.

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