Isis and Islam

On May 3, 2016, at the International Institute of Islamic Thought’s headquartersin Herndon, VA, Asaad Al-Saleh (Indiana University; scholar-in-residence,IIIT) spoke on “ISIS and Islam: How a Terrorist's Ideology TwistsReligion.” He began by asking a question – Is ISIS Islamic or not? – and thenproceeded to give a “simple point of view.” He first drew a distinction between“Islam” and “Muslim,” which he said is a very problematic thing to do.“Islam” is the text (i.e., the Qur’an and the Hadith literature). He contendedthat the battle with ISIS is mainly textual, for the Qur’an is a “textual container.”Thus, anything beyond the Qur’an and Hadith texts cannot be consideredpurely Islamic, but only a human interpretation of the text. Forexample, if we take history, then “Islamic history” is a highly misrepresentedlabel, for it is only “Muslims” who are participating in “history.” This historicalerror dates from the third Islamic century, with the rise of the “Islamicsciences.”As ISIS is not textually Islamic, not a revealed entity from the heavenof Islam, it cannot be labeled “Islamic” without violating the boundaries ofthe Qur’an and Hadith. On the second level, if ISIS claims to be a Muslimbody interpreting Islam, then its members are not following the agreed-uponrules of interpretation. For example, their selective interoperations not onlywork against the majority of Muslims, including the scholars of Islam, butthey are also being labeled as “deviant” even by other terrorist groups, suchas al-Qaeda

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