Russia’s Muslims proclaim Islamic State as enemy of Islam

News | 01.04.2015 | 00:03

TASS - Russia’s Muslim Board has proclaimed the Islamic State as an organization violating the basics of Islam, and its members as criminals deserving punishment, as follows from a fatwah (legal pronouncement) the Council of Senior Scholars (Ulema) published on Tuesday. "The members of the Council have used the Quran, the Sunnah (a code of social and legal customs) and other legal sources to show and prove that all actions by the organization calling itself the Islamic State, from the organization’s establishment and calls for resettlement to atrocities and public executions contradict Islam," the Muslim board says on its website. "From the standpoint of Muslim laws the participants in such criminal groups deserve punishment by death or complete isolation from society," the Muslim scholars said in their conclusion. The fatwah explains that the guilt of extremist organizations’ members must be proven "in a court of law excluding any doubt regarding complicity in violence, robberies and murders." Russia’s Muslims believe that "the Islamic State’s followers have erroneously interpreted Islam as a religion of brutality, cruelty, torture, violence and murder of all those who disagree." In particular, extremists have been trying to distort the basics of Islam, which prohibits the murder of civilians, prisoners and emissaries, such as journalists and members of humanitarian missions. "The Quran envisages tough punishment for violent actions, such as explosions, murders, hostage-taking and other terrorist attacks. If a terrorist attack claims the lives of innocent people, the sinfulness of such an act merely soars," the fatwah runs. Also, proclamation of a Caliphate without prior coordination with all Muslims (Shura) by the laws of Islam is regarded as mutiny. "This would bring about the emergence of many competing caliphates and eventually trouble and discord among Muslims," the fatwah warns.