ISLAM AGAINST EXTREMISM
We are an endeavour
of a group of committed and highly educated Muslims who collaborated with
diverse community officials to establish what is the final frontier to bridge
the gap between the needs of Muslims and their productive co-existence in the
wider Australian community. We are a non-partisan and independent institution, lobbying
for the right of all Muslims to a better living standard without prejudice and
discrimination and defending the civil liberties and privileges of those at
risk. It set forth in its endeavor to produce this text to empower the reader
with knowledge to discriminate between moderation and extremism and expel the
latter.
Preface
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said: “The extremist fanatics are doomed.”
Although extremism is not a new phenomenon, the rebel exacerbations witnessed
today requires prompt action and a strong resolve. The global extremist
movement driving this form of anarchy is manifested in groups known by a
multitude of names hiding behind Islam to roam among the Islamic communities
without drawing suspicion. Extremism does exist. Admitting this and recognizing
it as a dangerous force we can better plan to weed it from society. Islamic
practice is a true following of the rules of Islam and extremism is a perverted
view that deviates from the meanings of the merciful and moderate Islamic shari`ah. This elucidation is
presented along this backdrop.
Abstract
This elucidation explores the type of
extremism and terrorism practiced under the pretext of Islam. It draws on the
Quran, the sayings of Prophet Muhammad and the sayings of Muslim scholars to
expose the roots of extremism and assert the just position of Islam. It also
discloses revealing statements of deviant men/groups to add to the case against
them. First the historical place of Islam in society is explored, then how
deviations from orthodox Islam occurred and lead to the emergence of extremist
ideologies manifesting historically in groups like the khawarij
(dissenters) and in modern times in groups including the named al-Jama`ah al-Islamiyyah, the Wahhabis and Hizbut-Tahrir. Their
actions and methodology are identified. Today, extremist movements have killed
many people in
The Beginnings of Extremism
Historically, many people embraced
Islam freeing their hearts from the odious practices of ignorance and tribalism.
Those true Muslims whose hearts pacified to the call of the Prophet were a
people of middle ground, fairness and justice.
Others, whose hearts did not pacify
with peace of mind, had ulterior motives and emerged to spread envious gossip
by attempting to split the line. They constitute the fringe sects of
destruction and diseased ideologies who had to conceal themselves with the
cloak of Islam to spread their evil, disrupting the harmony of Islam.
The khawarij
(dissenters) are among those who appeared in the first century on the Islamic
calendar and whom the Prophet peace be upon him warned against in his hadith: “There will be those that come after me who will
read the Qur’an but it does not go past their throats. They leave Islam like a
spear leaves a prey, and they never return to it. They are the worst of the
creations.”
Extremism in Modern Times
The majority of Muslims do not
subscribe to extremist ideologies and theological perversions, which is why
extremists find themselves constantly challenged, striving in every era to
increase their small number and expand on their fringe positioning. Consequently,
extremists have always tended to overtly gather to protect and pass their distorted
views to the next generation built on youth. Today the khawarij
still exist despite appearing under different names. Like their elders, they
pass group-blasphemy to all those outside their sects. They continue to assault,
to shed blood and to extort the properties of all those who defy them, the same
way their elders did with the sons of the companions of the Prophet. Except
today their threat is greater especially when they are not being faced with a
unified and prompt ideological counter-offensive.
The khawarij
of today follow the same concepts of their elders resulting in copycat acts of
terror shedding the blood of the rulers; peoples of states; Imams; contractors;
journalists; ambassadors; engineers; doctors; farmers; craftsman, and old and
young males and females. They call upon peoples to dissent against the leaders
by way of revolutionary coup d'états and armed revolts, to hit at the
infrastructure of governments and to kill its soldiers and police officers. If
people refuse their calls, they apostatize them and shed their blood and extort
their properties; leading to the bombing of civilian buses and to planting
explosives at airports, trains, public roads. Previously they have even
destroyed mosque minarets with the praise of some locals. One of their speakers
here in
The extremists have killed many people
in
• Sheikh Muhammad ash-Shami: the Mufti of
a village near
• Sheikh Dr. Hussayn
adh-Dhahabi: the Minister for Islamic Endowments and
an academic at an Islamic College in
• Sheikh Nizar
al-Halabi: the chairman of the Islamic Charity
Projects Association in
To plainly discover their deviant
ideology and unjust reasoning underpinning their acts of terror, one needs only
to observe extremists’ books.
Quotes from extremists’ books:
• In their book fi
dhilal al-Qur’an (In the Shades of the Qur’an) [vol. 3/G8/p.1198]
they say: “He who obeys a human in a secular law even if it were partial
obedience then this person is a mushrik (idolater) and
a blasphemer no matter how emphatically he utters the testifications
of faith”.
• In the same book [vol. 2/G7/p.1057]:
“All humankind in the East and the West inclusive of those who repeat the testifications of faith on the minarets with no indicator
or factual happening are deeper in sin and worse in punishment on the Day of
Judgment because they have blasphemed for the worship of creations”.
• In the same book [vol 3/p.1449] is written: “It is required upon those who
are called the Jama`ah al-Islamiyya
or the brotherhood group to snatch the reigns of power from the rulers and to
destroy their systems and to revolt against them by way of coups throughout the
states”.
However, historic and contemporary
Islamic literature abounds with refutations against deviant sects. Islamic
scholars fought and debated them including the great Prophetic companion `Abdullah
Ibn `Abbas and the fourth Khalif (successor) Master `Aliy Ibn Abi Talib,
followed by the four Sunni schools of thought and their orthodox followers. The
four Sunni schools of thought are the highest authority for the Sunnis in refuting
this global extremist movement and its aligned groups who falsely claim to be
part of the Sunni populace.
Quotes from the four Sunni schools:
• The Mufti of the Hanbalis
in Mecca Sheikh Muhammad bin `Abdullah bin Hamid (d. 1295
H.) said in his book as-suhub al-wabilah
(The Downpouring Clouds) page 276 about the leader of
the extremist Wahhabi movement: “If he was contested
and refuted and could not overtly kill his contester, he sends a hit man to
murder him on his bed or at night in the market place, because he believed in
the blasphemy of those who opposed him and the shedding of their blood”.
• The Mufti of the Shafi`is
in Mecca Sheikh Ahmad Zayni Dahlan
(d. 1304 H.) wrote in his book ad-durar as-sunniyyah (The Sunni Gems) about the leader of the
extremist Wahhabi movement that he used to say: “And
all that is under the seven skies is a mushrik (idolater)
fully, and he who kills a mushrik is rewarded with
Paradise”.
• He (Mufti) also relayed about the Wahhabi leader his statement: “He who enters our way shares
our rights and obligations, and he who doesn’t is a blasphemer whose blood is
shed and wealth is squandered”.
• He also mentioned in his book ‘umara’ al-balad al-haram (The Princes of the
• The Maliki
Sheikh Ahmad as-Sawi (d. 1241 H.) mentioned in his
commentary on al-Jalalayn [vol.3 p.307-308] about the
khawarij who misinterpret the true meanings of the
Qur’an and the Prophetic traditions shedding in that the blood of the Muslims
as is witnessed today in their localities. They are a sect in the Hijaz region (
• Dr Muhammad al-Ghazali
(d. 1996) and who was a disciple of Sheikh Hasan al-Banna
may Allah have mercy on him mentioned in his book min ma`alim
al-haqq (From the Characteristics of Truth) [p.264]: “Those
underground youth were later on a major threat to the group, as they started
turning against each other in assassinations until they became a destructive
tool for terror in the hands of those who had no true knowledge of Islam and
could not be relied upon for the common interest of society”. Hasan al-Banna also said about them before he died that they were
not brothers and they were not Muslims.
Today, the threat of extremists is
escalating and reaching new fronts beyond
Remedies and Solutions
The war against extremism is a
systematic war which has to be accompanied with preventative measures which
include:
• Satisfying the need for Islamic
scholars, Sheikhs and Islamic religious workers who remain at the forefront of
the line of defence against them.
• To continue training new religious
workers and Sheikhs with the know hows and the
rebuttal documents enabling them to expose extremism and its proponents.
• To expose those in the public arena
so that they cannot continue to find access to the general public.
• To maintain a media, broadcast and
print, that supports rebutting and curtailing extremist acts and undressing
their disguise and motives
• To encourage Islamic leaders of
today to speak out against the modern version of the khawarij
in order to prevent them from teaching their ideology through pulpits, mosques,
radio stations, satellite channels, schools, public lectures.
• To protect the Muslim youth from
their danger by preventing access to the extremist books
Curtailing extremism should not be
limited to security measures, which sometimes defeats the aim. Security
measures may sometimes bloat the motives of extremists who act upon a recursive
chain of actions and reactions in order to expand their sphere of conflict from
one generation to another. Alone it could also attract the attention of some
oblivious youth who might grant their sympathy to these extremist groups. Some
people have even put a spin on hypocrisy, disguising it as public relation and
promotion; thus luring the passive. Such deviant people compete for air time
and coverage, while concealing their true identity and motives behind void
utterances of peace and moderation. Their private sessions contain the same
rants that they distribute in their bookstores claiming to advise the youth
towards the right path for salvation. It is also behind doors that they accuse
those calling against extremism to be mere agents or informers. It was only
recently, when one of them was extolling extremists by saying that if it
weren’t for them “Allah would have sunk the Earth from underneath us” and he
called those carrying out suicidal attacks “martyrs”. Consequently, continued learning
about Islam and application becomes a necessity for differentiation.
The conclusion is framed in what the
trustworthy Prophet peace be upon him said: “Allah
rewards for gentleness what He does not reward for violence” [related by Muslim
and others]. Clearly, the onus is upon all Muslims to resolve this phenomenon, each
through his informed area of expertise and with as much capacity as one could
bear. Muslims in