Part 3
Written by: Osama Nahzat
Undeniably, media warfare and hollow slogans have remained among the most potent weapons employed by the Daeshi Khawarij—from their illegitimate emergence, through the final gasp of their so-called caliphate, and even now, as they lie fragmented and scattered. These rhetorical tools allowed them to manipulate perceptions and conceal the harsh realities of their brutality under the guise of Islamic slogans.
The leaders and commanders of this group consistently portrayed themselves as the true defenders of the oppressed within the Islamic Ummah. They claimed that the primary objective of their armed struggle was the protection of the downtrodden. However, these grandiose declarations sharply contradicted the grim realities on the ground in territories under their control, revealing a stark gap between their rhetoric and practice.
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the spokesman of their self-declared caliphate, once addressed the general Muslim populace in a short video, expressing seemingly noble sentiments:
و لئن نقدم فتضرب أعناقنا واحدا واحدا أحب إلينا من قتل رجل مسلم قصدا، فإنا والله من أجلهم نفرنا و للذود عن دمائهم و أموالهم و أعراضهم جئنا و سنضل نحبهم و لو كريهونا و سنضل ننصرهم مهما خذلونا و نريد حياتهم و لو أرادوا قتلنا.
“Even if we are beheaded one by one, it is more beloved to us than intentionally killing a single Muslim. By Allah, it was for them that we rose, and to defend their blood, wealth, and honor that we came. We will continue to love them even if they hate us, and we will continue to support them even if they abandon us. We desire their lives, even if they seek our deaths.”
Despite this lofty rhetoric, al-Adnani and his followers demonstrated, in both Iraq and Syria, that they were far more proficient in spilling the blood of defenseless Muslims than in protecting them. While publicly claiming that the life of a single innocent Muslim was more valuable than all their own lives, their actions painted a far different picture—one in which Muslim blood was treated as the cheapest of commodities.
The grim reality within Khawarij-controlled areas was a complete contradiction to their deceptive slogans. In numerous towns and villages across Syria and Iraq, Muslims who had committed no crime other than refusing to pledge allegiance to their fictitious caliphate were labeled apostates and executed in public squares. Their opposition to the group was met not with dialogue or mercy, but with accusations of disbelief and swift, brutal death.
In Afghanistan, the crimes of the Daeshi Khawarij were no less savage. Their heinous attacks on mosques, religious seminaries, Friday congregational prayers, and even hospitals and medical centers further exposed the darkness of their ideology and the falsehood of their slogans. These acts demonstrated that their enmity extended not only to governments or rival factions but to the very heart of the Muslim community.
Over the years, tens, hundreds, and even thousands of young Muslims were slaughtered in the most barbaric fashion, merely for rejecting the group’s deviant beliefs. Their lifeless bodies were discarded in barren deserts and remote mountains—silent witnesses to the horror inflicted in the name of a corrupt and self-serving ideology.
Undoubtedly, the bloody and shameful legacy of the Daeshi Khawarij is a living testament to the blatant hypocrisy between their declared ideals and their savage reality. A group that claimed to champion the cause of the oppressed within the Islamic Ummah ultimately transformed into one of its worst oppressors—inflicting deep, festering wounds upon the body of the Ummah through the merciless shedding of innocent blood.
These wounds are not mere footnotes in history. They are permanent scars etched into the collective memory of the Ummah—reminders of betrayal cloaked in the garb of piety. And the dark stain of these atrocities will remain imprinted on the foreheads of the Daeshi Khawarij forever.