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Pakistan: Muslim cleric laments that no Islamic scholar is confronting Islamic State

Mar 11, 2015 5:01 pm By Robert Spencer

Maulana Zahidur RashidiPakistani Islamic scholar Maulana Zahidur Rashidi is apparently unimpressed with the cynical and deceptive pieces that appear regularly in the Western media, assuring us that the Qur’an is benign, that it teaches only defensive jihad, that the U.S. Constitution is Sharia-compliant, and that the Islamic State is not Islamic. If he sees them at all, he also sees through them.

“Pakistani Cleric Laments That No Scholar Of Islam Is Rising To Confront ISIS: ‘The Tradition Of Declaring Each Other Apostates And, Based On It, Killing And Fighting Is Not New,'” MEMRI, March 8, 2015:

In a recent article, Pakistani Islamic scholar Maulana Zahidur Rashidi lamented that the Islamic world has failed to respond to the rise of jihadist groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS). Without naming ISIS, Rashidi argued that ISIS-like Kharijites rose during the times of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph of Islam, whose caliphate was challenged by rivals, and used the theological principle of apostasy to declare Muslims infidels and kill them.

In the article titled “No Imam Abu Hanifa is Rising”, Maulana Rashidi argued that, much like ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, Kharijite commander Zahhak had called for the killing of all Muslims who had in his opinion become apostates (i.e. left Islam). Rashidi says that the Islamic jurist of the time, Imam Abu Hanifa, rose to the occasion and successfully challenged Zahhak on the definition of apostasy in Islam, and as a result, Zahhak and his comrades stopped the bloodshed of Muslims in the Iraqi city of Kufa.

As per Rashidi’s article, Imam Abu Hanifa told Zahhak that apostates were those who had left their religion and adopted another religion, an argument the Kharijite leader accepted. However, Rashidi’s article is silent on whether a Muslim leaving Islam will or will not be considered an apostate if he/she does not adopt another religion. Rashidi’s article was published by Roznama Islam, an Urdu-language daily.

Following are excerpts from the article:

“The Widespread Bazaar Of Apostasy And Killings That The Kharijites Created… Is An Unhappy Part Of Our Past In The Form Of Several Bitter Chapters Of History”

“In the Islamic world, the tradition of declaring each other apostates and, based on it, killing and fighting is not new; rather it has been continuing since the early era [of Islam]. The Kharijites, who began sedition against the Emir-ul-Momineen [and fourth Islamic caliph] Hazrat Ali, had made [the principle of] apostasy their identity and distinction, and in the blink of an eye had enacted the bazaar of killing and fighting. The Kharijites used to not only consider the order for compromise between Ali and Muawiya [the governor who refused to accept Ali as caliph] and the appointment of an intermediary as kufr [unbelief], but also considered it necessary to kill Muslims guilty of ‘major sin’ by declaring them apostates.

“Their argument… was derived from the superficial understanding of certain Koranic verses and their act of rhythmic Koran recitation was so famous that they began to be described as the groups of Qaris [those who recite the Koran] – so much so that when they occupied Basra [in Iraq] and killed nearly 6,000 people, it was called the Occupation of Basra by the Qaris. At one stage, Zahhak, a leading commander of the Kharijites, launched a military invasion of Kufa [now in Iraq] and occupied it; and displaying his sword in the Big Mosque of Kufa, standing along with thousands of his comrades, ordered that the people of Kufa come before him one by one and renounce kufr, otherwise he would kill the people there, as he did in Basra.

“It was the courage, strategy and foresight of Imam Abu Hanifa [the founder of the Hanafi school of Islam, one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence] that became an obstacle in the path of the abhorrent intention of Commander Zahhak; otherwise, the history of Basra was to be repeated at his hands in Kufa… The details about this incident are discussed by Maulana Manaazir Ahsan Geelani in ‘Imam Abu Hanifa Ki Siyasi Zindagi [The Political Life of Imam Abu Hanifa].’ Its summary is that Imam Abu Hanifa faced the Kharijite Zahhak and asked him why he had ordered the massacre of the public of Kufa? He answered that the people had become apostates and the punishment for apostates is killing, and therefore if these people do not renounce [their apostasy], he would have all of them killed.

“The Imam [Abu Hanifa] responded that an apostate is one who leaves his religion and adopts another religion, whereas the people of Kufa are following the faith and belief on which they were born, and they have not affected any change in their faith and belief; therefore there is no justification to declare them apostates. Zahhak understood this point and he lowered his sword, saying… ‘I made a mistake,’ and ordered his comrades to lower their swords… The widespread bazaar of apostasy and killings that the Kharijites created in that era is an unhappy part of our past in the form of several bitter chapters of history. The fresh wave of this psychology and trait of apostasy and killings has taken many sensitive regions of the Islamic world in its flame and the forces of the enemies of Islam have developed such an organized plan to benefit from it that the collective wisdom of the Islamic nation is left wounded…”…

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Jihad doctrine, Pakistan Tagged With: Maulana Zahidur Rashidi


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Comments

  1. Ren says

    Mar 11, 2015 at 5:24 pm

    When one does not want to see reality as it is, he just won’t see it.

    • mortimer says

      Mar 11, 2015 at 5:45 pm

      Exactly. The hadiths diverge and conflict with one another FREQUENTLY. With so many different doctrinal options, sometimes opposite ones, Muslims can claim to be following authentic Islam while they are following an optional opinion.

      Islamic morals are therefore flexible, and Islamic ethics are opportunistic!

      However, Maulana Zahidur Rashidi does not abandon jihad, misogyny, the doctrine of the kafir or the doctrines of torture, genocide, ethnic cleansing, misogyny or cruel punishments.

      He only says, you can’t mistreat a Muslim and demands a wider interpretation than the narrow ISIS interpretation which is no different from the Saudi Arabian interpretation of ‘deviance’, since Salafism comes from Saudi Barbaria.

    • particolor says

      Mar 12, 2015 at 6:39 am

      I cant even get My head around Islamic Scholar ?? 🙂
      What do they Schol at ?

  2. Mark says

    Mar 11, 2015 at 5:38 pm

    Sounds like her be quite happy if they only killed non-Muslims.

    • Mark says

      Mar 11, 2015 at 5:39 pm

      Whoops that should be “he’d be”.

      • mortimer says

        Mar 11, 2015 at 5:46 pm

        Precisely. ‘It isn’t a crime against humanity when Muslims do it…Just don’t do it to a Muslim.’

      • Phil says

        Mar 12, 2015 at 12:24 am

        Jah love, you be firstly rite! There be no need for changin’ th’ inspired words, mon. It true – her be very happy if’n they only kill the kaffir!! An doan’ you be too sure ‘bout her bein’ manly in first place.

        Sorry, couldn’t resist – when I was reading your response I pictured a Rasta at the keyboards.
        Jokes aside though, consider the hagiographic nature of the commentary we’ve been offered as a counter to the neo-Kharijite Islamic State. Apart from it being a piece of Hanafi propaganda, overflowing with mythological references, this is scarcely a ringing condemnation of neo-Kharijite barbarism. After all – what does the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence teach? Al-Jassas states pre-emptive killing is justifiable when reprimands against un-Islamic activity go unheeded and an enemy commits acts that are haram – not exactly a strong condemnation of Islamic violence, is it??

        Still, I concede I may be judging them too harshly. Let’s go on. The Hanafi madhab :
        (i) declare apostasy a religious crime punishable by death.
        (ii) equate blasphemy with apostasy and insist the blasphemer be killed if a muslim man (or imprisoned and coerced, in other words beaten, til they recant if the blasphemer is a woman). The punishment for non-Muslims is discretionary and can range from beatings, to arrest and death depending on what the Islamic judge decrees – so tough titties Charlie Hebdo, your slaughter was halal.
        (iii) quite properly insist on stoning adulterers provided they are muhsan (adult free muslims who had previously enjoyed marital relations) or flogging if they are not. But just in case you’re worried these people are a bunch of free – loving muslim hippies, we can be relieved to know that Hanafi scholars specify the size of stones to be used in rajm (stoning): the stone should fit the palm of a man’s hand and definitely not be so large as to cause death too quickly, nor so small as to cause only pain. The compassion evident in that ruling is truly overwhelming (Sarc off).

        In case any of our Muslim trolls dispute the mythological reference claim, naming the leader of the Kharijite rebellion, the wicked Kharijite protagonist, Zahak, gives the game away – Zahak (a.k.a. Aži Dahãka) is the name of the principal son of the Evil Lord, Ahriman in Zoroastrianism and is a significant figure in Firdawsi’s epic Shahnameh, and as such it is a reference any person with an Arabo-Iranian cultural background (such as the Pakistanis, Afghans, all Dari and most Urdu speakers) would easily recognize. So we have the saintly Abu Hanifa an-Nu’man ibn Thabit confronting s son of the Evil Lord and winning by the power of his Islamic righteousness…yeah, right.

        Let’s please remember, this is not the ranting of some obscure muslim sect. The Hanafi fiqh is the largest one in all Sunni Islam – with membership covering somewhere between a third to one half of all Sunnis.

        And this is the ‘moderate’ muslim response to IS?

        • RonaldB says

          Mar 12, 2015 at 4:30 am

          Haha, Phil.

          The answer to your question is a resounding “yes”.

          Between Muslim theologians, we seem to have our choice between “dumb” and “dumber”.

          I think you’re pointing out that Maulana Zahidur Rashidi would be perfectly happy if ISIS stopped killing Shi’ites, and they both united to follow their traditional actions of humiliating and robbing non-Muslims.

  3. Wellington says

    Mar 11, 2015 at 7:43 pm

    Oh hell, more parsing. More wondering if this verse in the Koran means that or something else; if this event in Islamic history means A or B——-blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile, the killing and maiming goes on, never mind all the “mere” threats by Muslims aplenty to replace Western laws with Sharia.

    Christ, when is all this rot going to end? By this I mean ANY continued exculpation of Islam, which, once and for all, has to be assigned to the trash heap of history.

    Islam is a religious cancer. No other major religion is.

    Islam is a burden to all mankind. No other major religion is.

    Islam has blood on its hands in our age like no other major religion even remotely does.

    Stop the nonsense, the nonsense here being that there is a good Islam lurking out there somewhere.

    There isn’t.

    • RonaldB says

      Mar 12, 2015 at 4:36 am

      Can I make a further commentary on your commentary, Wellington?

      It is apparent that there is no individual conscience in Islam, only slavish obedience. So, the obscure parsing of Islamic texts actually becomes a very significant conscience substitute for Muslims.

      And it does get frustrating, wondering why the West is so unable to assert its own values that it can’t see immediately the very alien nature of Muslim theology and practice, and close its borders to infiltration of it’s own institutions.

      • Wellington says

        Mar 12, 2015 at 1:25 pm

        “Conscience substitute.” I like that, RonaldB. I also of course like your suggestion of ending Muslim immigration to the West. Use whatever legal pretext to do so but do it. Soon like.

        • terry says

          Mar 12, 2015 at 8:49 pm

          Actually, many western countries up till three years ago, had their doors wide open welcoming proportionately large numbers of Muslims, in tens of thousands, while denying refugee claims by many Christian families and individuals, fleeing persecution in countries with a Muslim majority.

          More than four years ago, in Ontario, Canada, their were at least two cases, involving several Coptic Christians from Egypt whose lives were in danger but they were denied refugee status.

          One case was of a family in which the wife was pregnant and the husband showed them clear marks on his back left by an attack by a Muslim gang. The refugee board decided then that given the status of Egypt as a moderate Islamic country, there was no danger for the lives of Christians over there, so these people should be sent back.

          It is worth mentioning that one of the three refugee board members was a Muslim!

        • particolor says

          Mar 13, 2015 at 4:01 am

          Don’t let Muslims I ! They are Serial Killers !! 🙁

  4. jewdog says

    Mar 11, 2015 at 7:55 pm

    At least he sees through the opportunistic use of apostasy by ISIS. Now all he has to do is take his reasoning one step further and see how Islam’s view of apostasy as a capital crime implicates Islam as a dangerous ideology which can easily be exploited by homicidal maniacs. It’s probably precisely because such reasoning could lead to overall skepticism about Islam, and ultimately to apostasy, that most imams fail to go there.

  5. harley says

    Mar 11, 2015 at 11:25 pm

    Justin, I am an atheist but I agree with just about all your comments since I joined this blog.

  6. pumbar says

    Mar 11, 2015 at 11:30 pm

    Don’t goats have beards like the one he has grown? I’d look out if I were him; mind you, by the expression he has on his face in that photograph it may be too late.

  7. ECAW says

    Mar 12, 2015 at 4:58 am

    “The Imam [Abu Hanifa] responded that an apostate is one who leaves his religion and adopts another religion, whereas the people of Kufa are following the faith and belief on which they were born, and they have not affected any change in their faith and belief; therefore there is no justification to declare them apostates.”

    Really? The Reliance of the Traveller goes quite a bit further:

    o8.2 Among the things that entail apostasy from Islam (may Allah protect us from them) are:
    o8.6 to be sarcastic about Allah’s name, His command, His interdiction, His promise, or His threat
    o8.7 To deny any verse of the Koran or anything which by scholarly consensus belongs to it, or to add a verse that does not belong to it
    o8.17 to believe that things in themselves or by their own nature have any causal influence independent of the will of Allah
    o8.18 to deny the existence of angels or jinn or the heavens
    o8.19 to be sarcastic about any ruling of the sacred law
    o8.20 to deny that Allah intended the Prophet’s message (Allah bless him and give him peace) to be the religion followed by the entire world.

  8. Jeff says

    Mar 12, 2015 at 12:28 pm

    This cleric is making himself a target by committing, what enough crazy Muslims would consider, heresy.

  9. Thomas G says

    Mar 12, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    ECAW,
    My gosh! I had no idea of the depths of the sickness…….that “The Reliance of the Traveller” is some real sick stuff!!

    • ECAW says

      Mar 13, 2015 at 3:01 am

      Here’s some more (but not to be read over breakfast):

      https://ecawblog.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/bathroom-talk/

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