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          Muslim Scholars Present Religious Rebuttal to Islamic State

   by Reuters

   Over 120 Islamic scholars from around the world, many of them leading
   Muslim voices in their own countries, have issued an open letter
   denouncing Islamic State militants and refuting their religious
   arguments.

   An array of Muslim leaders and groups have publicly rejected the
   Islamist movement since it imposed its brutal rule over large areas of
   Syria and Iraq this summer. Five Muslim nations have also joined a
   U.S.-led military campaign against it.

   The 22-page letter, written in Arabic and heavy with quotes from the
   Quran and other Islamic sources, is just as clear as those groups in
   condemning the torture, murder and destruction Islamic State militants
   have committed in areas they control.

   "You have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality,
   torture and murder," the letter said. "This is a great wrong and an
   offense to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world."

   Its originality lies in its use of Islamic theological arguments to
   refute statements made by self-declared Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and
   his spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani to justify their actions and
   attract more recruits to their cause.

   The letter is addressed to al-Baghdadi and "the fighters and followers
   of the self-declared 'Islamic State,'" but is also aimed at potential
   recruits and imams or others trying to dissuade young Muslims from
   going to join the fight.

   Nihad Awad of the [1]Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR),
   which presented the letter in Washington on Wednesday, said he hoped
   potential fighters would read the document and see through the
   arguments of Islamic State recruiters.

   "They have a twisted theology," he said in a video explaining the
   letter. "They have relied many times, to mobilize and recruit young
   people, on classic religious texts that have been misinterpreted and
   misunderstood."

   Prominent Signatories

   The 126 signatories are all Sunni men from across the Muslim world,
   from Indonesia to Morocco and from other countries such as the United
   States, Britain, France and Belgium. Including Shi'ite or women
   signatories could have discredited the appeal in the eyes of the
   hardline Islamists it addresses.

   Among those who signed were the current and former grand muftis of
   Egypt, Shawqi Allam and Ali Gomaa, former Bosnian grand mufti Mustafa
   Ceric, the Nigerian Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar and Din
   Syamsuddin, head of the large Muhammadiyah organisation in Indonesia.

   Eight scholars from Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the highest seat of
   Sunni learning, also put their names to the document.

   In the letter, the scholars not only denounced the killing of U.S.
   journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David
   Haines as murder, but also rejected it based on the Muslim custom of
   protecting emissaries between groups.

   The letter described as "heinous war crimes" several cases of militants
   killing prisoners, totalling at least 2,850. To stress this point in an
   Islamic way, it gave several quotes from the Prophet Mohammad
   forbidding such practices.

   It said that Arab Christians and the Yazidis, followers of an ancient
   religion derived from Zoroastrianism, were both "people of the book"
   meant under Islamic sharia law to be protected. Both groups were driven
   to flight as Islamic State militants swept across northern Iraq.

   "Reconsider your actions, desist from them, repent from them, cease
   harming others and return to the religion of mercy," the letter
   concluded.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-muslim-scholars-rebuttal-islamic-
   state/2463725.html

References

   1. http://www.cair.com/
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-muslim-scholars-rebuttal-islamic-state/2463725.html