The following is my answer to a Quora
question: “Why
do many people support ISIS?”
The underlying ideology of ISIS is
Wahhabism. Wahhabism is a puritanical,
exceptionalist, literalist heresy of Sunni Islam that arose 300 years ago. It was founded by Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab
an-Najdi.
From its very beginning, Wahhabism was a
violent ideology that declared all Muslims to be heretics, unless they believed
as the Wahhabis believe. This takfir,
declaration of apostasy, against Muslim continues to this day, with Wahhabis
regularly accusing orthodox Muslims of disbelief and polytheism. Wahhabism also calls for the violent
subjugation of non-Muslims, and establishment of some sort of caliphate that
they hope to grow into a global polity.
To this end, the Wahhabi sect attacked and
pillaged Muslim cities, villages and nomadic tribes. They enslaved, and
murdered thousands. They desecrated
graves and places of worship. They
staged mass executions and massacres. This
Wahhabi sect eventually came to rule the Hijaz and surrounding areas, and
renamed the entire area Saudi Arabia. As
the ruling ideology of Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism is promoted and exported
throughout the world. It is no
coincidence that 17 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. Boko Haram, Al Qaeda,
Laskar e-Taiba, Jemaah Islamiyya, and almost every single violent jihadist
group is Wahhabi.
Even amongst Wahhabis who do not identify
with the violence, their views are still extreme and exceptionalist. They do not mix with non-Muslims. They claim that celebrations such as birthdays
and even secular holidays are haram. They claim music is haram. They have a deeply misogynistic view of
society. They are anti-intellectual, and
hold literalist interpretations of scripture. It is not a large step from suspicion of the “kuffar”,
to hatred of the “kuffar”, to waging war against the “kuffar”.
As long as we have Wahhabi institutions,
Wahhabi money funding mosque buildings, Wahhabi publications, Wahhabi trained
preachers coming back to the country, we are indulging a fifth column that
cannot be trusted, and should be viewed as a security threat. Wahhabi groups have this modus operandi of
their preachers, mostly graduates of the University of Madina, returning to
their native lands and taking up positions of influence in Muslim organisations
or as community leaders. This is the
source of that poison.
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