For the first time ever, over 1000 (1050 to be exact), including muftis and imams of India, have issued a 15-volume fatwa against the leader, fighters and followers of the self-declared Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State (IS).
In a letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent last month, these scholars described themselves as believers and followers of Islam, and strongly condemned the actions of the IS. They appealed to the international community to have a better understanding of what it means to be a Muslim and a follower of Islam, and not to abuse it by associating it with terrorist outfits like the IS or ISIS.
They said that more than a thousand years before the so-called ISIS "Khilafat Rule", Prophet Mohammad's Islam had ordained that followers must not kill children, women or the aged, nor should they cut trees, trouble priests or harm places of worship.
Referring specifically to the ISIS reign of terror and horror, these Islamic scholars, through their fatwa, said the latter is guilty of committing heinous murders of innocent human beings, clicking images of their horrific misdeeds and showing them to the world through live videos and Internet posts, and at the same time, wrongly claiming these to be "Islamic Acts done lawfully as per the Sharia (Islamic Law).
The over one thousand scholars emphatically stated that the IS or ISIS actions were "absolutely inhuman and added that Islam never permits such unlawful acts under any circumstances."
They said described the Khilafat Rule of IS or ISIS as "absolutely absurd and accursed" and their actions as not having any relation with Islam or its teachings.
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They urged the UN Secretary General to uphold their fatwa as an example to the world, and denounce terror organisations like the IS or ISIS for the sake of global harmony and peace.
Among the signatories to the fatwa, which has been forwarded to heads of state and government across the world, were the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, key representatives of the Ajmer Dargah, Nizamuddin Aulia dargah, the Raza Academy, the Ulema Council of India, the Jamiatul Ulema Maharashtra, the Moin Ashraf Sahab Kachocha Dargah, the Sayed Zahir Abbas Rizvi Zainabya, the Aamil Sahab Dawoodi Bohra, the Jamiat Ahle Hadees Mumbai, the All India Tanzeem Anmay-e-Masjid and the Darul Uloom Mohammadiya.
The letter was sent by Dr. Abdur Rahman Anjaria, the president of the Islamic Defence Cyber Cell.
