09-25-2017

(Photo: Turki al-Bin’ali (pictured...), In August, R. Green of The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) published a lengthy analysis of the May 17 ruling and the “intense internal dispute” that followed. In “Dispute Over Takfir Rocks Islamic State,” Green explained that some of the Islamic State’s most senior ideologues objected to the order.

Among them was Turki al-Bin’ali (pictured on the right), who was killed in an airstrike in Mayadin, Syria just two weeks after the document was issued. Al-Bin’ali was one of the earliest and most important jihadist ideologues to support Baghdadi’s caliphate-building project. He helped poach jihadists from al Qaeda and its branches around the globe, often drawing the ire of some of his fellow ideologues and one-time comrades. But the May 17 memo went too far for Al-Bin’ali, who served as the Islamic State’s “Grand Mufti.”

Al-Bin’ali wrote a letter, translated by MEMRI, in which he offered 20 objections to the ruling. He complained that it was issued with “the second most important seal” in the Islamic State, meaning the delegated committee, which is directly “subordinate” to Baghdadi. Al-Bin’ali said that “extremists” were celebrating the declaration. Green explained that Al-Bin’ali’s objection stemmed from his concern that the declaration would lead to an “endless chain of takfir.”)

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The Islamic State has revoked one of its most problematic and extreme religious rulings. The one-page repeal was disseminated on social media sites associated with the so-called caliphate on Sept. 15. It was issued after months of controversy surrounding the group’s approach to declaring takfir on other Muslims, a key ideological issue.

On May 17, the Islamic State’s delegated committee, which answers to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, issued a finding titled, “That Those Who Perish Would Perish Upon Proof and Those Who Live Would Live Upon Proof.” The ruling quickly proved to be contentious because of its broad approach to takfir, the practice of declaring other Muslims to be non-believers due to their supposed apostasy or heresy. The Islamic State and its predecessors have always relied on a wide-ranging definition of takfir, even as compared to their jihadist rivals in al Qaeda and the Taliban. But the May 17 pamphlet took the issue further, apparently removing the little flexibility that Baghdadi’s men had previously afforded most Muslims.

In the months since it was first issued, the ruling exacerbated an ongoing crisis within the Islamic State’s leadership, leading to its repeal.

In a one-page memo disseminated online, and addressed to all of the Islamic State’s “provinces” and other internal entities, the group explains that the May 17 document was riddled with factual errors and “caused conflict and division specifically among the ranks of the mujahideen and generally among Muslims.”

The self-declared caliphate said its followers should consult the texts issued prior to the disruptive document, as these books, after being amended and edited, “do not contain anything that contradicts the doctrine of the people of sunnah.”

“We advise” returning to and relying “on these books for clarification of the issue of excommunication of polytheists [mushrikin], the ruling of the abstaining community [meaning those who refuse to implement sharia], and the rulings on houses or other issues,” the Islamic State’s leadership commanded in the Sept. 15 memo.

The short document is a remarkable admission. The Islamic State has implicitly conceded that its delegated committee, one of the most powerful councils within the self-declared caliphate, has made a grave doctrinal error

https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/09/islamic-state-rescinds-one-of-its-most-problematic-religious-rulings.php