Muslim leaders deny ISIS’ religious claims, stoking group’s anger
Death threats are a sign that Muslim religious leaders have antagonized the Islamic State, and their growing influence also contradicts those who claim that Muslim leaders have been silent in the fight against violent extremism.
Imam Suhaib Webb greets attendees before the start of a seminar. The Muslim leader in D.C. has held monthly video chats to rebut the religious claims of the Islamic State group. (DREW ANGERER/NYT)
May 8, 2016 at 6:14 pm
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
The New York Times
As the military and political battle against the Islamic State group escalates, Muslim imams and scholars in the West are fighting on another front — through theology.
Imam Suhaib Webb, a Muslim leader in the District of Columbia, has held live monthly video chats to rebut the religious claims of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL. In a dig at the extremists, he broadcast from ice-cream parlors and called his talks “ISIS and ice cream.”
Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, an American Muslim scholar based in Berkeley, Calif., has pleaded with Muslims not to be deceived by the “stupid young boys” of the Islamic State. Millions have watched excerpts from his sermon titled “The Crisis of ISIS,” in which he wept as he asked God not to blame other Muslims “for what these fools amongst us do.”
It is a religious rumble that barely makes headlines in the secular West since it is carried out at mosques and Islamic conferences and over social media.
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/muslim-leaders-deny-isis-religious-claims-stoking-groups-anger/
= new reply since forum marked as read
FWIW, I found their reference to Kharijites to be highly informative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khawarij
Did you?
