By Abdul Basir Omari
Across Islam’s long and storied history, certain places have taken on symbolic weight, becoming hubs for ideological movements that later shaped conflict far beyond their borders. From such enclaves, organized groups mounted campaigns against Muslim societies themselves. Powerful states used these forces as instruments against Islamic governments, destabilized entire regions, and advanced their own political and strategic designs through intermediaries rather than open confrontation.
The precedent is an old one. When the early Khawarij rose against Ali (RA), they leveled sweeping accusations of disbelief not only against him but against other leading Companions as well. They proclaimed a caliphate of their own, appointed their own ruler, and unleashed violence against fellow Muslims. Their claims were wrapped in religious language, yet their objective was not the protection of Islam; it was the killing of Muslims and the destruction of legitimate authority. This same pattern defines the modern-day Khawarij.
Those operations were not scattered or accidental. They radiated outward from a specific location known as Harura. That place served as the ideological, military, and organizational nerve center of the Khawarij, which is why many hadiths refer to them as the Haruriyya. The Companions themselves used that name because the group lived in Harura and directed corruption from there.
Several hadiths preserve this terminology:
حَدَّثَنَا آدَمُ، حَدَّثَنَا شُعْبَةُ، حَدَّثَنَا الْأَزْرَقُ بْنُ قَيْسٍ، قَالَ: كُنَّا بِالْأَهْوَازِ نُقَاتِلُ الْحَرُورِيَّةَ…
رواه البخاري، حدیث 1211
أَنَّ امْرَأَةً قَالَتْ لِعَائِشَةَ: أَتَجْزِي إِحْدَانَا صَلَاتَهَا إِذَا طَهُرَتْ؟ فَقَالَتْ: أَحَرُورِيَّةٌ أَنْتِ؟…
رواه البخاري، حدیث 321
عَنْ أَبِي سَلَمَةَ وَعَطَاءِ بْنِ يَسَارٍ، أَنَّهُمَا أَتَيَا أَبَا سَعِيدٍ الْخُدْرِيَّ فَسَأَلَاهُ عَنِ الْحَرُورِيَّةِ…
رواه البخاري، حدیث 6931
Together, these reports bind the Khawarij’s identity to Harura and show how their campaign was directed from that base toward the Islamic state itself. By drawing Muslim armies into exhausting internal battles, they weakened broader resistance to external enemies. Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya described this reality without ambiguity: “They were the greatest of people in assisting the disbelievers against the Muslims.”
(Majmoo’ al-Fatawa, 7/284)
In political terms, this amounted to a de facto alliance.
The historical parallel is not academic. Just as the early Khawarij once operated from a defined geographic center known as Harura, their contemporary successors now organize from another distinct landscape: Pakistan. The country’s military regime maintains financial, military, intelligence, and propaganda ties with such factions. The killing of eleven ISIS members inside Pakistan, documented in a recent Al-Mirsaad report, confirms that the country functions as both a sanctuary for Daeshi Khawarij and the Harura of the present age.
This pattern extends across the region. Militant Khariji networks fuel instability, strike Muslim populations, and divert Islam’s genuine defenders from confronting their principal adversaries. Attacks are coordinated from Pakistani territory, and the country continues to serve as a haven for these organizations.
From this body of evidence, Pakistan has assumed the role of a new Harura in the modern era. Once again, grave danger radiates from a single geography, aimed at humanity at large and Muslims in particular. If this threat is not confronted in time, and if those operating from this sanctuary are not met with the same firmness once shown by Ali (RA), the consequences will be severe.