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Senior Saudi Salafi cleric: The Islamic State is “a true product of Salafism”

Nov 11, 2014 5:28 pm By Robert Spencer

al-KalbaniSalafism is a movement dedicated to adhering to what the earliest Muslims, the salaf (“ancestors”) did. Thus is a movement devoted to restoring Islamic purity and strict adherence to the Qur’an and Sunnah. Will Barack Obama send John Kerry over to Saudi Arabia to explain to Sheikh ‘Aadel Al-Kalbani how he is misunderstanding Islam?

“Senior Saudi Salafi Cleric: ‘ISIS Is A True Product Of Salafism,'” MEMRI, November 4, 2014:

“ISIS is a true product of Salafism, and we must deal with it with full transparency.” This statement was made not by liberal Muslim elements, who regularly criticize Salafism, but by Sheikh ‘Aadel Al-Kalbani, former imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and a Salafi himself, hence its importance. Al-Kalbani is not the first Salafi to come out against ISIS – other Saudis have condemned the organization’s conduct and operations – but Al-Kalbani has gone farther in his criticism: he has come out against the principles of the Salafi perception from which ISIS and its ilk draw, and has called for a rationalistic approach to Islam’s distant past and what it means for Islam today instead of a blind reenactment of it.

In two articles in the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh, Al-Kalbani criticized elements in the Salafi stream for appropriating the truth and Islam and for permitting the killing of their opponents, and likewise criticized clerics and society that dared not come out against them. He stated that the call to blindly reenact the path of the Prophet Muhammad and of the forefathers of Islam stems from a faulty grasp of the essence of this path, and that Muhammad himself had rejected blind adoption of the perceptions of the past and blind following of the path of his predecessors, choosing instead a rationalistic approach appropriate for a changing reality. Al-Kalbani stated that clerics must take their heads out of the sand and move with the spirit of the times instead of rejecting and condemning any new idea.

This is not the first time that Al-Kalbani has challenged the mainstream Saudi clerics. He has harshly attacked suicide bombings, [1] published a fatwa permitting poetry,[2] and called for allowing women to drive cars.[3]

The following are translated excerpts from his two recent articles in Al-Riyadh: 
Sheikh ‘Aadel Al-Kalbani (source: Assabile.com)

“ISIS Is A True Product Of Salafism And We Must Deal With It With Full Transparency”

On August 15, 2014, Sheikh Al-Kalbani tweeted (@abuabdelelah): “ISIS is a true product of Salafism and we must deal with it with full transparency.”

 

This statement sparked reactions across the social networks, and 10 days later, on August 24, Al-Kalbani wrote in an Al-Riyadh article titled “Is Terrorism A Salafi Product?”: “Every time we see the fitna network sweeping up young people from among our sons… [and pitching them into] to a very deep abyss from which they will emerge only by means of idioms that drip blood, our conscience torments us and we wonder: From whence has this come upon us? How have they fallen into this?  As if we could not do a thing before then.

“But the opposite is true: The main reason for their deviation is our neglect – and by ‘our’ neglect I mean the [neglect of the] generation of the parents, and of the honorable members of society among the clerics, teachers, preachers, jurisprudents, and sociologists who are linked directly to that society. The words, the books, the sermons, the dramas, and all the artistic creativity and the essential link [to the audience] that these people present in all the media, whether print, radio, or television, [allow them] to monitor the ideas of the young people and to participate in balancing them. I exclude [of course] that tiniest of minorities whose throat is parched from warning about the extremism of the Salafis.

“Yes, this is the plant that has sprouted in the garbage dump of those who excessively pass judgment on others and pretend to represent Salafism. How gravely they have accused others of apostasy, of deviating from the right path, of heresy, and of licentiousness – as if the arena lies open before them and there is nobody to condemn them and no judge to punish them. Furthermore, they are received with feigned respect and admiration, and opportunities have been opened to them to plant in the minds of our young people that this one has gone astray and that one is an infidel and the other one is lax in religion. Even the greatest of clerics, past and present, are not spared their arrows. They spread the principles of Islam in a twisted manner that makes them incomprehensible or distorted, and preserve things that negate Islam. They measure the judge, the educated, and the student, and even the simple folk by what they [i.e. these extremists] have learned by heart [but] do not understand, and think that they are entitled to rule that the above mentioned are apostates and to call down upon them the punishments of Allah that are no longer implemented and [by so doing, they think that they will] restore the glory and splendor of monotheism.

“This group thinks that no one but itself and its supporters are the source of good and the defenders of monotheism – because [its members] imbibed with their mothers’ milk [the view] that all Muslims worldwide do not understand [monotheism] and that they are not worshipping only Allah but are polytheists who worship graves… and that there are no just clerics besides their own clerics and their disciples. [They think that] only a cleric whom they love, whom they heed and obey, and on whose say they reject or validate [others] – only he holds the truth and acts in accordance with the ways of [Islam’s] just forefathers… They spread out and multiply, and publicly call for following in the footsteps of some sheikh and for accepting his words in full. They have begun to classify people, preachers, and clerics – [for example,] this sheikh shouldn’t be listened to because he is more loathsome than the Jews and the Christians, and that fatwa deviates [from the right path], so it is forbidden to pray behind anyone who adopts it, or to sit with him, eat with him or respect him. They have begun… to separate the young people from the clerics who understand the result of [this activity by them] and what difficulties they are going to cause the nation.

“Actually, there is no connection between the path of these extremists and the [true] path of the Salafis – which is tolerance, compassion, and gentleness, and in which there is no place for extremism and [religious] fanaticism. [Salafism] is a path that spreads love, brotherhood, and acceptance of the other among Muslims and coexistence with non-Muslims. But the thing is to understand it and to implement it – and not [just to] pretend [to do so] – in a way that is compatible with the deep roots of the past and with the demands of the present.

“[However,] what is needed is a perception for reforming ideas, not admonitions, reproof, reactions and word-sparing that deal with the symptom and ignore the disease! There is still enough time to rehabilitate [these ideas], ideologically and practically, and to prevent society from splitting into sects and groups that throng after dignitaries who are enveloped in an aura of immunity [to sin and error] and sanctity, with each group thinking that it has the right to guide the nation and recruit its young people.

“A plant is always like its roots. If we want a good, fruitful plant, it is incumbent upon everyone to care for its roots, its water sources, the spread of its branches, and the fertility of the earth [from which it grows], and to protect it from ideas and viruses that turn its fruit and seeds to poison from which the generations sip and on which the young people grow up; from [these seeds] sprouts a plant that has in it no place for compassion and to whom love and friendship are totally alien.”…

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Filed Under: Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Jihad doctrine, Saudi Arabia Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Ayatrollah says

    Nov 11, 2014 at 6:03 pm

    “Salafism] is a path that spreads love, brotherhood, and acceptance of the other among Muslims and coexistence with non-Muslims. ”

    I would have liked to hear how this works. I think the sheik takes this as a given.

    • mortimer says

      Nov 12, 2014 at 12:02 pm

      To learn how Salafism is implemented, just look at Soddy Barbaria with repressed women, slave-foreign labor, persecution of Shi’ites, persecution of all other religions even if they worship behind closed doors, egregious hypocrisy, polygamy, child marriage, whippings, hand-chopping, crucifixion, decapitation, entitlement, dictatorship, Jew-hatred, etc.

  2. Wellington says

    Nov 11, 2014 at 6:38 pm

    Just out of curiosity, how does Salafism differ from Wahhabism? Anyone?

    • Haqq says

      Nov 11, 2014 at 8:11 pm

      It doesn’t. ‘Wahhabi’ is purely a derogatory term used for Salafis. Nobody actually refers to themselves as the former.

    • mortimer says

      Nov 12, 2014 at 12:05 am

      Muhammad abd ibn Wahhab was rejected by his own brother as a fanatic. Subsequent Wahhabists claim that Wahhab didn’t want to punish deviants in this world, but Salafists want to punish them through jihad.

      There is a difference between ‘moderate’ Salafists and ‘extremist’ Salafists according to how much they are in a hurry to impose Allah’s utopia on earth.

      ISIS are Salafists in a hurry.

    • Beagle says

      Nov 12, 2014 at 12:21 am

      Wahhabis are Salafists from what we now call Saudi Arabia mainly, but also the rest of the Arabian Peninsula and around the Gulf. Many Sunnis globally are Salafists. But strictly speaking, Wahhabis are mainly Arabian Peninsula Salafists. The name Wahhabi comes from their founder Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab born in 1703.

      Wahhabis are noted for suppressing ‘idolatry’ to such extremes they have destroyed and paved over most early Islamic history in Saudi Arabia. No Sunnis hate the Shia and other perceived bad Muslims more than Wahhabis.

      • bernie says

        Nov 12, 2014 at 3:05 am

        Wahabis in Egypt also want to dynamite the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx because those treasures are seen as pre-Islamic and therefore idolatrous, even though no one is suggesting that they be worshipped in these modern times.

  3. Jim Watson says

    Nov 11, 2014 at 7:15 pm

    You know who said ”there are sheep of this flock that are not mine. . .etc” . Guess this sheik’ll wind up following that shepherd.

  4. Richard Nations says

    Nov 11, 2014 at 10:29 pm

    It looks as though Robert didn’t actually read the statement before ridiculing it. There is no need to send Kerry to Saudi Arabia to rectify a cleric loudly proclaiming that Islam is a religion of peace.

    The key word here is “fitna”. He is condemning Isis & jihahdis as the new karajis that used taqfir and terrorism to plunge Islam into centuries of civil war.

    This is exactly what we need. More voices of religious authority within Islam condemning the jihadis as an anti-Islamic religion of violence.

    This guy is our ally.

    • mortimer says

      Nov 11, 2014 at 11:48 pm

      Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab created the Islamic revival that provided a philosophy for the House of Saud. Wahhabism is now taught in all Saudi schools. Wahhabism emphasizes hatred of Shi’ite practices and condemnation of non-Muslims as criminals.

      The descendants of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, the Al ash-Sheikh, have historically led the ulama in the Saudi state, dominating the state’s clerical institutions.

      The majority of the world’s Salafis are from Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia. 46.87% of Qataris and 44.8% of Emiratis are Salafis. 5.7% of Bahrainis are Salafis and 2.17% of Kuwaitis are Salafis.

      Salafis are the “dominant minority” in Saudi Arabia. There are 4 million Saudi Salafis since 22.9% of Saudis are Salafis (concentrated in Najd, the home of Wahhab). The Salafi movement is often described as synonymous with Wahhabism, but Salafists consider the term “Wahhabi” derogatory.

      Salafis do not acknowledge or follow any of the four schools of thought (madhabs to which other Sunni Muslims adhere. They have their own beliefs and laws, their own leaders and systems, a religion with strict and so-called extremist ways.

      According to the German domestic intelligence service, Salafism is the fastest-growing Islamic movement in the world.

      Ibn Taymiyyah wrote: “There is no criticism for the one who proclaims the madh’hab of the Salaf, who attaches himself to it and refers to it. Rather, it is obligatory to accept that from him by unanimous agreement because the way of the Salaf is nothing but the truth.”

      • Richard Nations says

        Nov 12, 2014 at 1:30 am

        Thank you Mortimer for backing up this truckload of erudition and dumping it on my little comment, but I still have no idea if you are trying to bury me under it or elevate me with it, in other words whether you agree or disagree that Salafis that denounce Isis as the new demons of fitna, as Al-Kalbani does here, are our allies or enemies.
        But again, I most appreciate your knowledge on the subject.

    • Salah says

      Nov 12, 2014 at 12:26 am

      @ Richard Nations,

      “This guy is our ally.”

      Could be, but that’s irrelevant. Robert Spencer is probably referring to the following statement of Al-Kalbani:
      “ISIS is a true product of Salafism (i.e. pure Islam), and we must deal with it with full transparency.”

      In other words, Obama and Kerry’s ISIS-has-nothing-to-do-with-Islam theme is a big lie.

      • Richard Nations says

        Nov 12, 2014 at 2:41 am

        Yes, Salah, I agree that Robert (and you) have read the statement “Isis is a true product of Salafism (i.e., pure Islam)” as an endorsement of Isis, but I contend that this is a misreading of Al-Kalbani’s intend which is explained in the succeeding clause, “we must deal with it with full transparency.”

        And what he means by the fuzzy buzz-word “transparency” is made apparent in the rest of the sermon. Al-Kalbani is calling for nothing short of a Muslim “Enlightenment”. Quibble if you will, but at the very least he is urging Muslim leaders to apply the same critical historical standards to the origins of Islam — the Rashidun caliphate and subsequent fitna that plunged Islam into civil war — so as to avoid the errors of the period rather than, as is customary, to memorize, worship, imitate and repeat them.

        I grant you that when a venerable Salafi, such as Al-Kalbani, proclaims anything as “true Salafi” it reads like an unqualified endorsement.

        But that is not the message here. On the contrary, what he is saying is that because Salafism has produced monsters on the order of Isis, we had therefore better go back and see where we went wrong, applying reason rather than reverence, to the examination of our sacred past. Such an attitude qualifies as “enlightened”, at least in Everyman’s understanding of the world.

        Why the change of heart on Al-Kalbani’s part?

        Any argument from motives must be speculative. Nonetheless, one is reminded how quickly the Iraqi Sunnis switched sides as soon as their “guests” in Al Qaida elevated themselves by the self-declared Islamic State of Iraq.

        By the same token, the key word in Al Kalbani’s discourse may just be the one he is so careful to avoid mentioning — the Caliphate. Caliph Ibrahim has suddenly asserted a claim on the loyalty of Muslims as far as New Zealand that far surpasses in religious force that of the mere protectorate of the House of Saud.

        Is it any surprise that we should now being hearing objections from the Saudi quarter of the like recently issued by Al-Kalbani condemning the network of fitna as the new taqfris and karajis that tore Islam asunder even in its days of glory?

        The question then is not whether you have managed to catch out Obama and Kerry in another “lie” — what’s new? — but whether this emerging division in Islam can be exploited to our benefit in the “war on terror” as was the previous split between the Islamic State of Iraq and its erstwhile Baathist”hosts” to such spectacular success in the surge that ended the Iraq war in victory.

    • Beagle says

      Nov 12, 2014 at 1:11 am

      I would not say “ally” or anything close. I think he sees that IS in endangering the Islamic supremacist global project. People all over the world are beginning to understand Islam in all its blood-splattered glory.

      The history of Islam and its core theology is no longer being successfully sugar coated by the media, education, and government. Read the comments sections of websites and newspapers. Only at the Guardian UK is the tone mostly positive where Islam is concerned. Their new meme compares Muslims to the Jews of Europe in the mid-20th Century. But other than the most hardcore outlets of leftist delusion, Islam has never received as much negative commentary based in facts and theology. Many media outlets have commenters who sound like Jihad Watch readers now.

      This is bad for Islamic business in most cases. Islam relies on attracting more than wannabee serial killers, sociopaths, schizophrenics, dangerous losers, sexual predators, empty leftists seeking meaning, and borderline personalities.

      • Richard Nations says

        Nov 12, 2014 at 4:23 am

        Eloquent indeed, but your case relies more on passion than argument. I use the word “ally” in its strategic sense; the issue in war being always common interests and not common confession.

        So when you say , “I think he [Al-Kalbani] sees that IS in endangering the Islamic supremacist global project,” you are not refuting me but lending further support to my argument. (See reply to Salah above.)

        After all who was our ally in WWII, the Soviet Union. And why did communists then decide to align with us against the Nazis rather than vice versa, if not because Stalin sensed that Hitler was “endangering the [communist] supremacy global project?”

        BTW, the Soviets defeated German armies on the battlefield, not the US. Had it not been for our communist allies, the Nazis would have won.

        Irrelevant you say? On the contrary, the historical parallels are compelling.

        1) The war between socialists in Russia and the national socialists in Germany and Italy (not to mention progressive in America) was the result of a long-simmering civil war on the left. Islam is presently in a similar state of civil war — the Third Fitna — that has continued off and on since its founding. The West is being dragged into Islam’s Third Fitna today as was the US dragged into the left’s civil war in WWII.

        2) After aligning with one wing of the totalitarian left to defeat the other wing, the US moved into a cold war with its former allies to isolate, contain and eventually roll it back. Today’s allies are tomorrow’s enemies. The Spartans aligned with Persia to defeat Athens, the US with France to defeat Britain and, by the same token, we are now well-advised to align with one wing of Islam to defeat the greater danger on the other wing.

        3) When six million Egyptians– the largest demonstrations in history — rose up topple the party of Shariah law; or when religious authorities in Saudi Arabia denounce the caliphate as violent taqfiris, I say we have some allies out there.

        While the question of whether “Islam” is peaceful, violent, or even a religion at all, is an interesting debate. I find it very illuminating and vital.

        But the eternal strategic issue is different:

        Viz., Who is the enemy? What divides him? And how best do we exploit such divisions so as to carry the war into his homeland where his enemies serve as our allies in our victory and his defeat?

        • mortimer says

          Nov 12, 2014 at 12:08 pm

          ISIS ‘endangers’ the EXISTENCE of the House of Saud. Period.

      • ECAW says

        Nov 12, 2014 at 5:00 am

        “Read the comments sections of websites and newspapers. Only at the Guardian UK is the tone mostly positive where Islam is concerned.”

        Surprised that this is your impression. Mine is that negative views about Islam dominate even the Guardian comments columns, though of course not as much as the Telegraph. Such comments get far more recommendations and we almost never see the Muslim dawah stuff we used to because someone is likely to pick it to bits. Even the censorship, sorry moderation, system seems to let stuff through that they wouldn’t have a year ago. Even so, it’s a game you have to learn getting stuff printed (I have two accounts currently on pre-moderation).

  5. mortimer says

    Nov 11, 2014 at 11:56 pm

    German government officials have stated that Salafism has a strong link to terrorism but have clarified that not all Salafists are terrorists. Salafi jihadists constitute less than 0.5 percent of the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims (i.e., less than 10 million).

  6. dumbledoresarmy says

    Nov 12, 2014 at 1:57 am

    Correction. The Islamic State is a true product of…ISLAM.

    It’s all Islam, in the end.

  7. fair_dinkum says

    Nov 12, 2014 at 8:15 am

    are not saudi arabia our allies against isis?

  8. Mark says

    Nov 12, 2014 at 12:28 pm

    He looks just like muhamad must have…. demon possessed paedophile

  9. Old African lady with no teeth says

    Nov 12, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    They are low in Morale wherever they are, Salafism, Wahabism or religious fundamentalists, they all the same. They like hating. They hate the west, gays, civilization, Jewish, Christians, women, they behaed people because of their beliefs or sexual orientations. They are medieval cult who like to force people on their belief, if they ever come close to me and try to force their stinky belief on me I fight back, they don’t scare me, they don’t scare anyone.

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