For those of you who don’t know, in march 2011, protests against Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad led to an ongoing civil war that to this day has claimed over 500,000 deaths. But what the media–CNN, BBC, and even Al Jazeera–have talked about throughout the years, specially in the U.S., is the role Islamist groups like ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra have in this conflict. After listening to people in BBC like Reza Aslan criticizing (and rightly so) gross generalizations about Islam, but at the same time, giving incorrect or incomplete truths, I decided to do some research of my own to find out the truth about Islamist groups and the reasons behind what they do.
I will focus on Syria and ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) and al-Nusra as Islamist/Salafist groups, both of which are increasingly active in the initially-secular movement to topple Assad. Highly controversial is the fact that their violent means are allegedly backed up by their holy book, the Qur’an. Is the U.S. then right in intervening and bombing Syria in an effort to bring ISIS down? That is one of the main questions we have to look at critically and something I believe we are not doing the right way today (and when it comes to the U.S., something that has not been done right in most other occasions).
According to an article by The Economist and other sources like CNN and The Washington Post, Salafist groups in Syria are taking a more active role in the conflict. ISIS and al-Nusra seek to establish an Islamic state under sharia law. It is even more worrisome the fact that these groups are radical and they don’t discard violence as a way to achieve their goals. According to an article by CNN on October 6th, 2014, they even departed from the war they had between themselves and came together against a common enemy: the U.S.
Here is the main question and the source of lots of controversy today: who actually represents what Islam is about? The radical violent extremists or the peaceful moderates? A concept we should first try to understand clearly is the doctrine of abrogation. The doctrine of abrogation states that later pronouncements of the prophet Muhammad null or void earlier pronouncements. Surahs 2:106, 13:39, 16:101, 87:6-7 all talk about the doctrine of abrogation.
After doing some research, I came to the ominous conclusion that a lot of the verses that talk about peace are actually abrogated by verses that say the complete opposite, as stated in the video above. One of the most concerning verses is, again, the Verse of the Sword, which reads:
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
-Surah 9:5
The Wikipedia entry on the verse of the Sword points out that the next verse should not be omitted:
If any of the idolaters seeks of thee protection, grant him protection till he hears the words of God; then do thou convey him to his place of security — that, because they are a people who do not know.
-Surah 9:6
But, why stop there?
How can there be for the polytheists a treaty in the sight of Allah and with His Messenger, except for those with whom you made a treaty at al-Masjid al-Haram? So as long as they are upright toward you, be upright toward them. Indeed, Allah loves the righteous [who fear Him].
-Surah 9:7
And:
Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.
-Surah 9:29
The more I read that Surah, the more I get confused… And again, if you watched the video above, you learned that the Medinan Surahs which came later in a sense abrogated the earlier Surahs. And Surah 9 was the second to last to have been written!
Now, I don’t buy what the media says about Islamists. As Ylmaz said in another video, hypocrisy is rife in the West’s actions. Bombings not only kill rebels, but they kill civilians too. An Australian jihadist in Syria says: “What is the difference, between a missile that hits into a house which kills 15 kids, compared to one — you know, a man dying, getting cut by a throat?” And they upset the militants, giving them a reason to retaliate. The coalition between al-Nusra and ISIS is a clear example of how foreign actions are bringing Islamists together and angering them, giving them a reason to attack, to retaliate.
But, please, let’s have a conversation! What’s up with the doctrine of abrogation and the verse of the sword?! Can anybody help?! Muslim friends and Muslim people I don’t know, please chime in…
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