ISIS declares war on....Muslims: Latest edition of terror group's magazine calls for Shiites to be targeted
ISIS declares war on....Muslims: Latest edition of terror group's magazine calls for Shiites to be targeted
ISIS has used the latest issue of its online magazine Dabiq to declare an all-out war on fellow Muslims.
The Sunni terror group dedicates much of the 56-page propaganda publication to justifying the killing of Shia Muslims, who it claims are apostates to the Sunni majority.
Although not the first time ISIS has called for the killing of Shia Muslims, the magazine makes it clear that ISIS is calling for a concerted effort to wipe out the Shiite population of the Middle East.
The magazine, the 13th issue of Dabiq, is entitled: 'The Rafidah: From Ibn Saba’ to the Dajjal’. The word 'rafidah' is a derogatory term for Shiite Muslims and can be translated as 'rejecters'.
It contains pages of violent rhetoric directed against Shiites, which it refers to as 'the followers of deviant desires'.
‘Some of them are Jews who fake Islam to spread their deviance, just as Paul of the Jews faked Christianity to spread his deviance,’ it reads, quoting the Tābi’ī ash-Sha’bī who died in 104AH [719AD].
‘The Rafidah hate Islam just as the Jews hate Christianity. They did not enter Islam longing for Allah or fearing Him, rather out of spite for the people of Islam and so as to inflict harm upon them.’
It continues: ‘The Jews and the Rafidah are two sides of the same coin.’
‘Our condition dictates that we deal with the matter with courage and clarity and endeavour for a solution… The solution as we believe, and Allah knows best, is to expose the Rafidah...to fight them and stop them,’ it continues.
The propaganda magazine claims the minority Shiites have 'declared a hidden war against the Muslims'.
'Even though the Americans are also a major enemy, the Rafidah are more severely dangerous and more murderous...than the Americans,' it adds.
Even though the Americans are also a major enemy, the Rafidah [Shiite] are more severely dangerous and more murderous...than the Americans.ISIS magazine Dabiq
‘They took the Americans as allies, supported them, stood in their ranks in the face of the mujahidin [jihadists], and sacrificed and continue to sacrifice for the Americans everything precious so as to end jihad and the mujahidin.’
Although ISIS has been slaughtering and torturing Shiite Muslims throughout its reign of terror in the Middle East, this is one of the most explicit calls for the Shiite branch of Islam to be destroyed.
As ISIS took vast swathes of western and northern Iraq throughout the summer of 2014, there were frequent reports of fighters' capturing groups and releasing the Sunnis while singling out the Shias for execution.
The latest issue of the magazine also praises the December 2 terrorist attack launched in San Bernardino, California.
It claims the couple demonstrated Muslims’ willingness to make sacrifice for the sake of ‘fulfilling their duty to Allah’.
‘On this particular occasion the attack was unique,’ it reads. ‘The mujahid [jihadist] involved did not suffice with embarking upon the noble path of jihad alone. Rather, he conducted the operation together with his wife, with the two thereby aiding one another in righteousness.’
The magazine also published an obituary for British fighter Mohammed Emwazi - also known as Jihadi John - saying that he had been killed in November by a drone strike in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, in Syria.
It reported how, on his last attempt to leave the UK for Kuwait, Emwazi was stopped at the airport and kept for questioning by MI5.
It says he ‘presented himself as unintelligent, as was his method when dealing with intelligence agencies’, and thereby escaped by tricking MI5.
He later became known as the balaclava-clad executioner who appeared in a string of videos showing the beheadings of Western hostages.
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUNNI AND SHIITE BRANCHES OF ISLAM?
The two main branches of Islam disagree over who should succeed the Prophet Mohammed, who died in 632.
Some felt his successor should be chosen from among his followers, while others – the ‘Shiite Ali’ or Partisans of Ali – believed the position should stay within the prophet’s family and that Mohammed had backed his cousin Ali for the post.
Shiite Muslims hold all of the prophet’s family, and particularly Ali and his sons Hassan and Hussein, in high esteem.
The two branches share many practices and beliefs, including the so-called five pillars of Islam that encompass fundamentals such as five daily prayers and the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Shiite Muslims, however, consider Ali to be the first of a series of imams, who are successors to the prophet and provide models and guidance for the faithful.
Shiites believe in an unbroken line of 12 imams who succeeded the prophet, beginning with Ali, and that the twelfth imam is in occultation but will return to restore justice on earth before the day of judgment.
While Sunni Muslims deem the four men who succeeded Mohammed to be the "rightly guided" caliphs, they do not place any particular significance on the religious practices of the leaders who came after them.
According to a 2015 study by the Pew Forum, there are just under 1.6billion Muslims worldwide. Sunnis are generally thought to constitute up to 90 per cent of the population of Muslims, with the rest divided between different Shiite branches.
Iran is traditionally regarded as the most powerful and important Shiite-majority country in the world, with Shiites also forming a majority in the neighbouring Iraq and Bahrain.
Despite being in the minority in Syria, Shiites are also powerful there, too. President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling party belongs to a Shia sect called the Alawites.
Source: AFP
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