By Ehsan
Part 9
The Intellectual Foundations of Daesh
1. Takfir
In the ideology of Daesh, takfir is not merely a matter of belief; it has been turned into a practical strategy for the physical elimination of opponents and for granting legitimacy to the group’s organized violence. Through this tool, Daesh has tried to reject every kind of intellectual and political opposition and, in the name of religion, has carried out some of the most savage crimes of contemporary history. What sets Daesh apart from other groups is that it systematized takfir and turned it into an administrative and judicial mechanism, a mechanism in which rulings of takfir are issued and carried out without any regard for legal or juristic principles and rules.
To carry out its takfiri rulings, Daesh set up a quasi-state judicial structure called the “Diwan al-Mazalim.” These self-appointed Sharia courts, without bringing the accused before a fair court or giving them the right to defend themselves, would put together fake and merely formal case files and then issue execution orders without any real trial whatsoever. The execution committees bore responsibility for carrying out these rulings, and thousands of innocent Muslims were killed by these self-made bodies on weak, baseless pretexts.
Even though this judicial structure had, on the surface, the form of an Islamic judicial system, in practice it had no resemblance whatsoever to the principles of Islamic justice; it was only a tool for making Daesh’s crimes appear legitimate.
The circle of takfir in the eyes of Daesh was so wide that perhaps no group in the history of Islam has used takfir to this extent. Daesh stated openly in its own magazine, Dabiq, that whoever does not pledge allegiance to their self-declared caliphate is an apostate and a kafir, and that his blood is lawful to spill. But the takfiri conduct of Daesh was not limited to this alone. The group not only labeled the Shia as Rafidah and kafirs, and considered killing them an individual obligation, it also called the Sufis “polytheists” and “grave-worshippers.”
They also declared takfir on those Ahl al-Sunnah who did not share their view; because these people did not accept their self-declared caliphate, or because they cooperated with opposing governments, Daesh considered them kafirs and declared their blood permissible. Even other jihadi groups were not spared from Daesh’s takfiri conduct; many of them were declared apostates simply for not pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In this way, Daesh placed a great many of the intellectual and political currents of the Islamic world outside the fold of Islam and presented itself as the sole true representative of the religion.
The wide-ranging takfir of Daesh had devastating consequences for Islamic societies, most notably widespread bloodshed and the killing of thousands of innocent human beings on baseless pretexts. These acts confronted the Islamic community with deep divisions and rifts, and severely damaged the foundations of Islamic unity, which are among the basic principles of Islam. On the other hand, these takfiri acts also damaged the image of Islam on a global scale and handed those circles hostile to Islam the pretext to present Islam as a religion of violence and terrorism. These acts prepared the ground for deceiving and drawing in many young Muslims; they were given promises of Paradise and martyrdom, and in the end were turned into tools for Daesh’s crimes.
Even though Daesh was influenced by the intellectual legacy of the earlier Khawarij, there are also fundamental differences between the takfiri approach of Daesh and that of the earlier Khawarij. The Khawarij, for the most part, declared takfir on their close opponents, but Daesh stretched the circle of takfir to cover the whole of the Islamic world. The Khawarij declared takfir on sinners, but Daesh considered even those who had committed no sin at all to be kafirs, simply because they lived under existing political systems or cooperated with Islamic states.
The Khawarij, in their takfir, observed juristic principles to some degree, but Daesh, by casting aside all Sharia and juristic rules and safeguards, turned takfir into a systematic process. These differences show that Daesh, even though it is an heir of the Khawarij, has gone a step further than them in extremism and violence. The wide and unregulated takfir of Daesh is not only in complete conflict with the fundamental principles of Islam, it is also considered this group’s greatest intellectual and practical deviation. This deviation has taken Daesh far from true Islamic values and has drawn over the religion of mercy, justice, and humanity a veil of violence, cruelty, and inhumanity.
