New Delhi: In a significant move, leading Muslim clerics of the country have joined their hands to condemn the Islamic State (ISIS) by issuing a fatwa against the organisation. Those who have issued the fatwa include world-famous imams and organisations like Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah, Ajmer Dargah, Ulema Council of India, Shahi Imam of Delhi, Jamiat-ul Ulema Maharashtra, among others.
Muslim leaders said that a large collective criticism of ISIS was crucial to oppose the terrorist group’s drive to recruit young men and women. The concern of the Muslim community began to grow following online recruitment videos and social media appeals with subtitles in Indian languages like Hindi, Urdu and South Indian languages. India is home to the world’s second-largest Muslim population with over 170 million Muslims. Hundreds of Muslims from Europe and Australia have reportedly joined the organisation to fight in Iraq and Syria. Top sources in the government revealed that the fatwa is in 15 volumes and is being signed by over 1,050 imams and muftis in India.
Calling their acts “un-Islamic and inhuman”, the imams have said that the practices of representatives and followers of ISIS “show that they have no relation with Islam or its teachings”. Prominent Muslim bodies have signed the declaration on the issue and sent it across to over 100 countries, including the US, UN Secretary-General and various embassies. “This is the biggest fatwa ever issued by any country against the leader, fighters and followers of the self-declared Islamic State. We have raised our voice against these killers. The claims of ISIS of Islamic rule are absolutely absurd,” A.R. Anjaria, a Muslim community leader in Mumbai, told this newspaper. Recent videos by ISIS of beheadings and destruction of historic monuments has shocked people all over the world.
To help young Muslims focus on better things, Dr Anjaria said that scholars are invited in madrasas to share their views on terrorism, the violent ideology and Islamic thinking.
