By Alberto M. Fernandez – MEMRI
Strangely enough, there was very little press coverage on the bulk of the 29-minute video – 24 minutes of it – that focused not on the killings themselves but on ISIS’s view of Christianity and Christians and how they should be treated. While their actions may be different, an analysis of the content of this video and an analysis of fatwas featured on the Saudi government’s official website government show considerable overlap in views on Christians and how they should be treated.
The video, titled “Until There Came to Them Clear Evidence” (taken from Surat Al-Bayyinah, 98:1), the video opens with the traditional polemical view of Christianity buttressed by Koranic quotes: a restating of strict monotheism, how the faith and practice of Christians are lacking, how they corrupted the Gospel (the Injil) delivered to the “last prophet to come from the children of Israel” Isa Ibn Miriam (Jesus the Son of Mary), how Christ was not really crucified but a substitute was crucified in his place, and how Christians are “mushrikeen” who “associate partners with God.”
Using extensive footage from movies (“Kingdom of Heaven” and “The Passion of the Christ”), the video then relates a skewed and hostile version of Christian history and denominations: the Roman Catholic Church “established in the 8th century,” the Coptic Orthodox Church, with its Ethiopian and Armenian subsets, the Eastern Orthodox Church in Greece and Russia, and “the Protestant Church.” Christians (Al-Nasara) are described as “a nation that deviated from the benevolent religion of monotheism.” The Koran, the hadith, and Islamic consensus are all marshalled to prove this disbelief.
Following this six-minute introduction, the video introduces its “star” Abu Malik Anas Al-Nashwan (real name Abu Malik Al-Tamimi Al-Najdi), a senior ISIS Sharia official and Saudi who graduated from Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh with the highest marks. Al-Tamimi was an enthusiastic member of the Saudi religious police who was being groomed for a position in the Saudi Ministry of Justice before leaving the country in 2009 for Afghanistan, where he fought in Kunar and Nuristan and was lightly wounded. He eventually moved to Syria, where he swore allegiance to ISIS. Supposedly he was No. 3 on Saudi Arabia’s most wanted list in 2011.
Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University has been described by Saudi dissident blogger Raif Badawi as a “den of terrorists.” Some of the 9/11 terrorists had a connection with that university, which also produced “jihadi jailbird” and influential ideologue Nasir Al-Fahd. Imprisoned since 2004, Al-Fahd posted a 2012 fatwa online calling for jihad against “the cursed Jews everywhere” as a supreme duty.
The same university produced Abd Al-Aziz Fawzan Al-Fawzan, who, unlike Al-Tamimi and Al-Fahd, is very much an establishment figure. Not only is he a Professor of Islamic Law at that university and a member of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, but he also taught in the U.S. and founded, and directs, a well-funded Spanish-language satellite television station based in Madrid – Cordoba Television International – aimed at converting Spanish speakers in Spain and Latin America to Salafi Islam. Ironically, the Moroccan government refused to allow the station to be set up its territory. Al-Fawzan gained some notoriety in 2005 when he called for “positive hatred” of Christians for their religious beliefs. He topped that when he came out as a 9/11 truther, claiming about Americans that “either they were accomplices in 9/11, or else they carried it out.” He has frequently denounced Shi’a Muslims, and described ISIS as an “American, Zionist, Safavid” organization.
Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice-President of MEMRI.
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http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8592.htm
