On December 3, 2014, at Al-Azhar's International Counterterrorism Conference in Cairo, Nigeria Mufti Sheikh Ibrahim Saleh Al-Husseini said in a speech that, by their actions, extremist organizations such as Boko Haram and their ilk bring a judgment of heresy upon themselves. Al-Husseini did not say explicitly that ISIS was heretic, but he did say that that "the statements and declarations [of these organizations] are what has brought them to heresy," and that "those who accuse others of heresy are [themselves] viewed as heretics by the shari'a." In other words, he accused the organization of heresy indirectly. Hence, his statements were interpreted by some media in the Muslim world as a fatwa by him that ISIS is a heretical organization.[1]
Al-Azhar, apparently alarmed by the reports that a fatwa accusing ISIS of heresy had been issued at a conference it hosted, hastened to deny the reports. Al-Azhar's reluctance to proclaim ISIS heretical reflects the caution of Sunni Islam in the matter of takfir(i.e., the practice of accusing other Muslims of heresy). Beyond the religious position that advocates avoiding takfiras far as possible, directing this accusation at ISIS can have far-reaching political implications. First, it places Al-Azhar in direct confrontation with ISIS. Second, since the Egyptian regime has been drawing a parallel between ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), an accusation of heresy against the former could be interpreted as applying to the latter as well. This could exacerbate the internal conflict in Egypt between the regime on the one hand and the MB and various terror organizations on the other, perhaps even leading to civil war in the country.
Hence, Al-Azhar, and the Nigerian mufti himself, swiftly denied the statements that had been attributed to him by some figures and media reports. In a December 5, 2014 interview with the Egyptian CBC TV, Al-Husseini said that, while ISIS' actions were indeed against Islam and a grave sin that must be condemned, these actions must not be called heretical. Al-Azhar issued an official statement denying the accusation of heresy that had been attributed to the Nigerian mufti, and several of its members presented various explanations for their refusal to consider ISIS heretical. They claimed that Islam prohibits one person from accusing another of heresy, and that the way to deal with those who engage in takfiris to direct the same accusation against them. Al-Azhar scholars also claimed that ISIS cannot be considered heretical as long as it adheres to the shahada the Muslim declaration that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger even if its actions contradict Islam. Additionally, they said that it was not Al-Azhar's place to judge whether anyone is a heretic, or to examine the tenets of their faith, since only God can know what is in someone's heart. Condemning someone as a heretic, they said, may be done only by a shari'a judge, after it is found by comprehensive and careful examination that the person deliberately chose heresy and has no intention to repent. For this reason, Al-Azhar said, it never intended to rule on whether ISIS was heretical.
Al-Azhar members stressed that their refusal to accuse ISIS of heresy must not be seen as either implicit support for the organization or opposition to the fight against it. They explained that ISIS is a terrorist organization whose actions deviate from the correct Islam, but at the same time they clarified again and again that judging whether or not it is heretical is beyond their authority. It should be mentioned that Al-Azhar and the Egyptian religious establishment have recently been campaigning against ISIS and other groups, such as the MB, depicting them as terror organizations that have strayed from Islam and harm both Islam and Muslims.
The following is a review of the statements by the Nigerian mufti and of Al-Azhar's position on accusing ISIS of heresy.
Nigerian Mufti On ISIS: With Their Actions, They Have Brought The Accusation Of Heresy Upon Themselves
At the December 3, 2014 International Counterterrorism Conference in Cairo, hosted by Al-Azhar and attended by hundreds of Muslim and Christian clergy from 120 countries, Nigerian Mufti Sheikh Ibrahim Saleh Al-Husseini delivered a speech attacking ISIS, Boko Haram, and their ilk. He said that their bid'ah (innovation forbidden in Islam) was worse than that of the Kharijites (a pejorative term for a group that withdrew from Islam in its early days). He added that while the accusation of heresy against the Kharijites had been controversial in the era of early Islam, these jihadi organizations of our time had, by their declarations and by their actions, brought the accusation of heresy upon themselves.
Al-Husseini called ISIS members deviants from the correct tradition who carry out all kinds of extremist and corrupt activity, sowing destruction, raping, murdering, and beheading. These people "accuse the entire [Muslim] ummah of heresy, and give no shari'a explanation or justification for this," he said. He went on to say that they are "evil, since they claim that they have the exclusive right to [establish] the Islamic caliphate" and are committing the sin of hiraba highway robbery which is subject to Koranic punishment. He added that "their statements and declarations are what has brought them to heresy, because all [clerics] agree that those who permit what is forbidden [by the shari'a] must be excommunicated… and those who accuse others of heresy are [themselves] viewed as heretics by the shari'a." He also said that fighting Muslims constituted heresy.[2]
Several media outlets interpreted the Nigerian mufti's statements as a fatwa labeling ISIS heretical (when in fact they were a rebuke and a condemnation of ISIS, but did not constitute a fatwa proclaiming it heretical in the binding legal sense of the term).
