Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has launched a fierce attack against the so-called Islamic State, asserting the groups like ISIL and Boko Haram do not speak for Islam.
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“If we want to stop ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), we must deny it any claim to represent Islam and starve it of the fuel of injustice,” Awad wrote in the opening of an article published on Time magazine on Friday, September 5.
“Despite misappropriating and misusing the name “Islamic State,” ISIL is little more than a criminal gang that attaches itself like a leech to revered symbols of Islam.
“It exploits counterproductive Western policies driving desperate people into its fold and uses injustices in the Muslim world as a smokescreen to cover its own cruelty,” he added.
Awad asserted that Islam prohibits the extremism exhibited by ISIL, adding that an essential part of the faith is moderation.
“When ISIL uses the Islamic declaration of faith, the Shahada, and the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) seal on its flag, it quite literally – and falsely – claims to uphold the banner of Islam,” he wrote.
“When ISIL says it is establishing a “Caliphate,” an historic term that resonates with Muslims worldwide, it does so to fool those who have experienced nothing but injustice and oppression into believing past glories will be restored.”
Moreover, he lamented the fact the media, political analysts and public officials were all participating in the group’s “public relations branding campaign”.
“Every time we refer to ISIL as the “Islamic State,” call its members “jihadists” or in any way grant it the religious legitimacy that it so desperately seeks, we simultaneously boost its brand, tarnish the image of Islam and further marginalize the vast majority of Muslims who are disgusted by the group’s un-Islamic actions,” Awad added.
“Extremist Muslims who commit crimes like those carried out by ISIL should be called criminals. We must not legitimize their actions by calling them jihadists.”
Jihad is often stereotyped by Western media as meaning “holy war”.
But Muslim scholars have repeatedly affirmed that the word Jihad, which is mentioned in the Noble Qur'an, means "struggle" to do good and to remove injustice, oppression and evil from society.
Karen Armstrong, the prominent and prolific British writer on all three monotheistic religions, has criticized stereotyping the Arabic word "jihad" as merely meaning holy war.
Awad referred to the rising opposition to ISIL cited by leading Muslim groups and organizations worldwide.
“The American Muslim community and Muslim scholars around the world have repudiated and rejected ISIL’s twisted ideology, calling it not just un-Islamic, but “anti-Islamic.”,” he wrote.
“The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the “Muslim UN,” said ISIL has “nothing to do with Islam,” and has committed crimes “that cannot be tolerated.””
To defeat ISIL, Awad presented an urgent prescription for ending injustice committed against Muslims worldwide, including Syria from which ISIL emerged after years of injustice committed by President Bashar Al-Assad.
“There would be no ISIL in Syria if we had fully supported the struggle for freedom in that nation since 2011. It was only the political vacuum created by our lack of support for the mainstream opposition to the brutal Syrian regime, and the resulting slaughter of more than 200,000 people and the displacement of millions more, which gave ISIL space to form and grow,” the Muslim leader noted.
“We need to support the mainstream Syrian political and military opposition seeking freedom and democracy. A free and democratic Syria and region is the long-term guarantee for the defeat and marginalization of groups like ISIL.”
Similar injustices were apparent in different countries in the region, he added.
“We also need to support democracy and human rights in Iraq, Egypt, and throughout the region,” Awad wrote.
“The fanaticism and barbarism of ISIL and other terror groups is fueled by the brutal repression of dictatorships that are sadly often supported by the United States. Religious fanaticism and political oppression are mirror images of each other and lead to the same bloody results.
“ISIL was only able to penetrate Iraq because we for too long backed a government that completely marginalized the Sunni Muslims and other ethnic and religious minorities. Iraqis who faced being shot at a government checkpoint for being a member of the “wrong” sect found out too late that ISIL was a worse alternative.”
At the end of the article, he put the whole issue into the hands of political leaders to decide which direction to take.
“If we want to stop ISIL, we must deny it any claim to represent Islam and starve it of the fuel of injustice,” Awad said.
“It is up to our political leaders to take the lead through a comprehensive international strategy, not in the number of bombs that can be dropped, but in the establishment of the freedom and justice that will spell the end for ISIL and its ilk.”
