Source: hereandnow.wbur.org
Muslim men pray after a speach by the Islamic Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community Mirza Masroor Ahmad at Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden on September 21, 2012 in London, England. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Since the U.S. announced its plan last month to conduct airstrikes against the group that calls itself the Islamic State, the consensus among Western politicians has been that the group is not Islamic, nor is it a state.
President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have all denounced the group’s brand of Islam as inauthentic, a perversion of what they say is true Islam.
Mark Juergensmeyer, professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara tells:
It’s important for political leaders to try to distance the actions of a perverted few from the reputation of a great tradition, particularly a tradition like Islam; its very name means peace”.
However, Juergensmeyer says that like it or not, the Islamic State is Islamic.
“There is a dark side to every religious tradition,” Juergensmeyer said. “But there is also the other side. Traditions are very vast, they are large, they are complex, and they carry with them all shadings and tempers of the human condition. And we should simply accept that as a fact, which is why ISIS is ultimately Islamic. But it’s certainly not the kind of Islam that Muslims would accept and profess.”
Juergensmeyer says there are comparable strains of radical terrorist organizations of the Christian tradition, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda.
“They have nothing with the Christianity I know,” Juergensmeyer said. “I certainly don’t feel that I need to apologize for them, as if somehow I was responsible for these nuts, and that’s the position most Muslims are in.”
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Countries, Europe, Islam, UK
ISIS cannot be taken as Islamic state just because they (the Khalifah Baghdadi sahib) says it is ISLAMIC STATE. What a state has to do with Islam if it is not peaceful? Islam is a religion which is spiritual matter. Its principles of peace through justice are laid out in the Quran and Sunnat.
Islam cannot be called mere tradition. Islam is secular in nature and Khalifah Baghdadi sahib’s all work is anti-secular. Islam does not teach Muslims to forcefully establish a government.
When the majority Muslims do not understand the peaceful Islamic principles then it is useless for them to try to establish a government (While they do not understand Islam).
The Muslims of the world have to be careful to keep away from all such efforts (calls) to establish an Islamic government. I know most Muslims get attracted to such calls for Islamic government. But that is not the will of Allah as revealed in the Quran. It is not the Sunnat of the prophet Muhammad s.a.w.s. Wassalam.