MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti), Ekaterina Blinova - Prominent Muslim scholars Sheikh Mohammad Shahid Raza, Sheikh Qamaruzzaman Azmi, Sheikh Dr Usama Hasan and other Muslim theologists have condemned the Islamic State for violating the rulings of the Quran and have prohibited Muslims from joining the "oppressive and tyrannical" ISIS movement.
"The IS persecution and massacres of Shia Muslims, Christians and Yazidis is abhorrent and opposed to Islamic teachings and the Islamic tolerance displayed by great empires such as the Mughals and Ottomans… IS is a heretical, extremist organization and it is religiously prohibited (haram) to support or join it," read a fatwa on ISIS which has recently been issued by British Muslim leaders.
According to the fatwa, British and other EU citizens should not only avoid joining the extremist group, but should also "actively oppose its poisonous ideology."
The Sunday Times points out that the fatwa has been released "after criticism that British Muslim leaders have not done enough to condemn aspiring jihadists who have travelled to fight for ISIS," or counsel those who are considering joining the terrorist movement. The media source notes that six senior Islamic scholars from Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Leicester and London have approved the fatwa.
Several prominent Muslim American leaders have also denounced ISIS as a heretical terrorist group. According to Arab American News, Imam Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan stressed that ISIS is "a bunch of gangsters" and could not be considered an Islamic organization.
The media source has also cited Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations of Michigan, as saying: "Whoever kills an innocent soul, it is like they have killed all of humankind. This is the teaching of Moses, the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad."
Muslim officials in the Middle-East have also expressed great concern over the growing influence of ISIS. "The acts and practices of IS in terms of beheadings and insulting minorities are at complete odds with the message of Islam and Muslim belief. Islam is mercy and love and communication with the other," said Sheikh Khaldun Araymit, secretary-general of Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Council in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
"These criminal acts have nothing to do with Islam. There is no basis for them in Islamic law," notes Abbas Shoman, Egypt's Al-Azhar religious official, as cited by the media source.
Social scientists underscore that Sunni Muslim countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia should be the first ones to confront the terrorists. They praise the fatwa that was released by British Imams, pointing out that it is destroying the legitimacy of the so-called caliphate and has unified Muslim communities.
