The gruesome incineration of the Jordanian Pilot by Da’ish (ISIS) in
Iraq has shocked many around the world. However, more than countering
merely the violence and the mayhem, the current challenge posed by ISIS
uprising is how to clearly define the factors and the actors. We need to
understand that the prominent ideological factor that seems to motivate
ISIS –and its Jihadist brethren from Mali to Indonesia- revolves round
the concept of political authority in Islam. This ideology is not only
driven by the teachings of the medieval Islamic scholar, Ibn Taymiyyah,
but has also encouraged political violence and extremism in the name of
Islam. Hence, it is important to examine the extent to which this
ideology has predisposed the jihadist mindset of ISIS and others. So,
let’s examine the radical political ideology of Ibn Taymiyyah and its
influence on the ideological motivations of ISIS as well as the
implications of his ideas for ISIS agenda.
And so the method on how to kill Al-Kassasbeh was not some dreamed up concoction, but stemmed from Islam as the quest on how to execute him circulated the Muslim world. In the burning scene video (see 1:00 above) ISIS gave the Islamic edict straight from the top Islamic authority of Ibn Taymiyya’s jurisprudence:http://shoebat.com/…/watch-horrific-video-isis-burning-pow…/
Several competing theories abound to explain the ISIS uprising,
broadly revolving round socio-economic, political, and religious issues
and the politics of post-colonial dominance and impunity, with despotic
regimes motivating resistant movements to transform themselves into
violent armed groups. One discourse that has remained less well examined
is the theoretical claim that ISIS and all other Deobandi and Salafi
jihadists have been deeply influenced by the religious and ideological
teachings of the radical medieval Islamist, Ibn Taymiyyah. Let’s focus
on the influence of Ibn Taymiyyah because there is no other Islamic
theologian who has had as much influence on radical political ideology
of Islam as Ibn Taymiyyah. The ideology itself is constructed on the
concept that a legitimate political authority must be based on the Quran
and the Sunna. Thus, it becomes a duty for all Muslims to ensure that
Islamic law is implemented in society. As such, it is argued that most
Islamic theologians, including reformers, revivalists and Islamists
either from the Sufi or Sunni tradition, from the Wahhabis to Sayyid
Qutb to Maududi and to Osama Bin Laden have in one way or the other
attacked the validity of secular political authority. They have also
questioned the authority of Muslim but secular political leaders who
have failed both in their personal and political lives to uphold correct
Islamic ideals.
How do we relate the concept and practice of Ibn Taymiyyah’s
political ideology to the ISIS call for an Islamic state? Let’s make an
attempt to examine the development of the concept of legitimate
political authority in Islam, followed by an analysis of its radical and
violent implications, how it was transited down to ISIS and why such
ideology is a potent tool for Jihadist mobilisation efforts. Some of the
lessons that ISIS and other contemporary Jihadists have drawn from Ibn
Taymiyyah are as follows:
Ibn Tamyiyyah and Political Islam:
Ibn Taymiyyah was born in Harran, an old city within the Arabian
Peninsula between Sham and Iraq (Al-Sham is an old name that represents
the areas of Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon) in the year 1263. Ibn
Taymiyyah became a professor of Islamic law. His political ideology was
very unpopular with political leaders at the time and he was imprisoned
in both Syria and Egypt. He portrayed Islam as a political ideology by
which Muslims ought to explain and justify the ends and means of all
organized social action. In this sense the ideology of political
authority in Islam is more than merely a religion in the narrow sense of
theological belief, private prayer and ritual worship. Ibn Taymiyyah
picked up some religious elements in Islam and turned them into an
ideological precept.
