Congressman’s Idea: Hey, Let’s Combat the Islamic State’s Ideology

Black and White Gala for Barack ObamaCongressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) had a great idea Tuesday: the U.S. needs to combat the Islamic State not just militarily, but ideologically. Speaking at a congressional hearing, he said: “We have the outreach–what we don’t have is the research. Keep in mind, the State Department has a thousand lawyers. I think they ought to hire one or two experts in Islamic jurisprudence, whether they be practicing Muslims or others who have the expertise.” He added: “It’s not enough to say, ‘look at what ISIS did, they beheaded somebody, it’s evil.’”

Instead, Sherman said, the jihadis had to be refuted on Islamic grounds. “One must be able to turn to the Quran, to turn to the Hadith and show how ISIS is making a mockery of a great world religion,” he explained. “You cannot appeal to Islamic jurists unless you can cite Hadith, unless you can cite Quran, unless you can do all the things you would do in working before any other jurists anywhere in the world. You need legal expertise to get the Islamic legal scholars to be on our side.”

Sherman has a point. For years now, I have been calling on self-proclaimed moderate Muslims in the West to produce an interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah that would refute Islamic jihadists’ exegesis and blunt their ability to make recruits among Muslims by convincing them that groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State were the authentic exponents of Islamic teaching. Muslim spokesmen have responded to this call with ridicule, scorn, and exegeses of the Qur’an that were riddled with half-truths and telling omissions, such that it was hard to escape the impression that they were produced in order to reassure credulous infidels, rather than to convince jihadis to lay down their arms.

One notorious example of these deceptive pieces came last September, when the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Fiqh Council of North America unveiled with great fanfare what they presented as a refutation of the religious ideology of the Islamic State, in the form of a lengthy “open letter” (not, interestingly enough, a fatwa) addressed to the Islamic State’s caliph Ibrahim, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

If Sherman knows about this “open letter,” he probably believes that it does what he wants, and shows “how ISIS is making a mockery of a great world religion.” He would probably be pleased if the State Department hired some of its signatories to wage the ideological battle against the Islamic State. State could offer contracts to Professor Mustafa Abu Sway, the integral professorial chair for the Study of Imam Ghazali’s Work, Jerusalem — and a Hamas activist; Dr. Jamal Badawi, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror funding case; Mustafa Ceric, former grand mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who has called for Sharia in Bosnia; Professor Caner Dagli, a venomously hateful Islamic apologist at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, who traffics in Nazi imagery about “unclean” unbelievers; Ali Gomaa, former grand mufti of Egypt, who endorses wife-beating, Hizballah, and the punishment of apostates from Islam; Hamza Yusuf Hanson, founder and director of Zaytuna College, USA, who blamed the West for Muslim riots over a teddy bear named Muhammad; Ed Husain, senior fellow in Middle Eastern Studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, who recently claimed that seizing British jihadis’ passports so that they couldn’t return to the UK from the Islamic State would only create more jihadis; Muhammad Tahir Al-Qadri, founder of Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International, Pakistan, who drafted Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy law and issued his own disingenuous and hypocritical Fatwa Against Terrorism; and Muzammil Siddiqi, chairman of the Fiqh Council and former head of the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

The signers’ unwholesome associations and allegiances were just one indication that there was far less to this open letter than the mainstream media’s rapturous reception suggested. In fact, the “moderates” who signed on to this open letter by doing so endorsed elements of Islam that most non-Muslim Westerners consider to be “extremist.”

“All Muslims see the great virtue in jihad,” says the open letter. It repeatedly stresses that jihad warfare is strictly defensive. “There is no such thing,” the scholars assert, “as offensive, aggressive jihad just because people have different religions or opinions. This is the position of Abu Hanifa, the Imams Malik and Ahmad and all other scholars including Ibn Taymiyyah, with the exception of some scholars of the Shafi’i school.”

The Shafi’i school is one of the four great schools of Sunni jurisprudence. If some Shafi’i scholars allow for “offensive, aggressive jihad just because people have different religions or opinions,” can it really be said to be un-Islamic? Are the scholars pronouncing takfir on the Shafi’i school? Or just deceiving gullible non-Muslims? The answer is clear.

What’s more, restricting jihad to defensive warfare looks even worse in light of the fact that in Sunni Islamic law, only the caliph has the authority to declare offensive jihad, but defensive jihad is obligatory upon all Muslims when a Muslim land is attacked, and need not be declared by anyone. So since the caliphate was abolished in 1924 to this day (except for those who accept the Islamic State’s caliphate claim), all jihad attacks, even 9/11, have been cast by their perpetrators as defensive – hence the jihadist tendency to retail long lists of grievances when justifying their actions.

So if 9/11 was defensive jihad, and these “moderate” scholars are endorsing defensive jihad, their “moderation” should send just a bit of a chill up the spine.

“Regarding Arab Christians,” the scholars remind the Islamic State’s caliph, “you gave them three choices: jizyah (poll tax), the sword, or conversion to Islam.” Jizya is the tax specified in the Qur’an (9:29) to be levied on “the People of the Book” as a sign of their dhimmitude, their subjugation and submission to Muslim hegemony. This, the scholars say, was wrong, because “these Christians are not combatants against Islam or transgressors against it, indeed they are friends, neighbours and co-citizens. From the legal perspective of Shari’ah they all fall under ancient agreements that are around 1400 years old, and the rulings of jihad do not apply to them.”

However, then the open letter asserts that “there are two types of jizyah in Shari’ah (Islamic Law)”: the first “applies to those who fought Islam,” but the second “is levied on those who do not wage war against Islam.”

The scholars tell the caliph that the Arab Christians are friends of the Muslims, they “did not wage war against you” and thus should not have been subjugated as dhimmis. But then in the next paragraph they say that “the second type of jizyah is levied on those who do not wage war against Islam.” Thus how is the Islamic State transgressing against Islam by levying the jizya on those who did not wage war against Islam?

In any case, the “moderate” scholars are apparently fine with a religion-based poll tax, a sign of the subjugation of the religious minority, in an Islamic state. In this the authors also contradict their earlier claim that jihad is only defensive; now “those who do not wage war against Islam” are to be made to pay the jizya, which results from Muslims fighting the People of the Book: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)

Despite all this and more, Brad Sherman would likely be thrilled with this open letter. With so many infidels so eager to be fooled, the work of groups like CAIR and the Fiqh Council of North America is easy. But the great work that Sherman called for – a refutation of the Islamic State on Islamic grounds – that has still not appeared in any genuine form, and that in itself is telling.

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  • JR Kipling

    Just another liberal watermelonseed moment. Hold him in a corner with both hands and prove that ISIS is ISLAM and he will just squirt away.

  • dwayne roberson

    Moderate Muslim mediators…I don’t think I’ll need both hands to count that category. The trend…not promising.

  • Tradecraft46

    The guy is just a squirrel looking for a nut. He is trying to sell a program is will not work given Islam’s view of change.

    All we are seeing is just a deception plan: sure a lot will agree, like CAIR, but just to forward the agenda.

    The man is californicated!

  • Larry Larkin

    His congressional district elected him and sent him to Washington as a way of getting rid of their village idiot.

  • Demetrius Minneapolis

    I’m guessing (yeah right) that Mr.Sherman has not read the hadiths, nor the qurans for which he speaks because if he had, he’d know that what ISIL believes IS what Mohammad had created, the second time around. Ask the spirits of the Jews of Mecca and Medina if they see links.

  • pennant8

    Maybe Congressman Sherman can coax Major Stephen Coughlin back on board. Remember him? About a half dozen years ago Major Coughlin was for all intents and purposes the ONLY expert on Islam in the DoD. A senior staffer to Ass’t SECDEF Gordon England,named Hesham Islam [no joke] managed to get Major Coughlin booted from the Pentagon because he was instructing officers on the facts of Islam as contained in Islamic scripture.

  • Gee

    I can only suggest one such truly moderate Muslim that might be able to do so – Abdul Hadi Palazzi. But what he has to say may not be what one would expect.

    • Space Cowboy

      Show me a moderate Muslim and I’ll show you either a blasphemous apostate that must be killed per the dictates of mainstream orthodox Islam or otherwise a taqiyya spewing Muslim, i.e., a stealth jihadist.

  • DontMessWithAmerica

    Brad Sherman is a nice man. But he has never been very bright. At this point, he needs to consider retirement.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Marks/1266358046 Paul Marks

    Congressman Sherman is making a simple, but fundamental, mistake – he is assuming that ISIS are misinterpreting Islam, they are not.

  • Space Cowboy

    For years now, I have been calling on self-proclaimed moderate Muslims in the West to produce an interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah that would refute Islamic jihadists’ exegesis…

    They are self-proclaimed so-called moderate Muslims for a reason: Because they are all really stealth jihadists. As all Muslims in the world are jihadists in one form or another. Since waging jihad in the cause of Allah against ALL INFIDELS IN THE WORLD to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme throughout the world is a fundamental holy obligation COMPULSORY for ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD in one form or another. Either of the violent variety (a tiny minority) or of the non-violent variety (the vast overwhelming majority).

    Indeed, since more than anything else Islam is a very rabid and draconian form of totalitarianism that seeks to make itself and its followers supreme, far more than it just a so-called religion, all non-conformers in Islamic totalitarian society are summarily executed for apostasy, blasphemy, or both according to the dictates of Islam. Thus, ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD are jihadists in one form or another. Otherwise, they are dead apostates and dead blasphemers.

    The truth is there is no such thing as a so-called moderate Islam, exactly like there is also no such thing as a so-called radical Islam. As so-called moderate Islam and so-called radical Islam only exist within the recesses of the unhinged minds of those that have been effectively blinded by PC multiculturalism. Which, unfortunately, today constitutes almost everyone and especially the Dhimmicrats and Republicans that comprise our Congress.

    The reality is there is only one Islam because there can only be one Islam and that Islam is mainstream orthodox Islam. Meanwhile, the sole fundamental purpose of mainstream orthodox Islam, (the only kind), is to convert all infidels to Islam or to otherwise kill or subjugate them via violent and non-violent stealth jihad and the eventual imposition of Sharia to make Islam and its followers supreme throughout the world.

    Thus, this means that ALL MUSLIMS currently living in America and elsewhere throughout the infidel world today are jihadists in one form or another, every bit as much as the violent jihadists that comprise ISIS in Iraq and Syria today. The only difference is Muslims living in the infidel world wage their jihad deliberately by stealth and non-violently by design and on purpose, because waging jihad violently in the infidel world isn’t feasible. Since it would quickly be eradicated and the Muslims would be sent packing back from whence they came from.

    Indeed, mass Muslim immigration with all of its excess baggage to the infidel world in essence is really stealth jihad for the strategic purposes of mass Muslim infiltration of our governments, Islamization of our societies, and for eventual demographic conquest.

    Muslims are not terrorists. As terrorism typically only involves a few radicals and extremists here and there. Instead, ALL MUSLIMS are jihadists! As jihad, in stark contrast, is a so-called holy war waged by ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD against ALL INFIDELS IN THE WORLD to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme throughout the world, and as such it is a far more profound problem relative to just a few radical Muslim extremists perpetrating terrorism here and there. Indeed, it’s a civilizational war and a war we can’t afford to lose.

  • nimbii

    Well gee, let’s first debunk the 72 virgins thing: I mean can there be enough virginal yearling goats for every fallen ISIS person to go around?

  • Dan Knight

    Thank you Robert: Speaking out for the voiceless.

  • 11bravo

    The US needs to conduct a massive truth propaganda campaign against Islam for the next 10 years.
    Place leaflets under every US aircraft (civilian, commercial and military) that drops leaflets over Muslim countries by the millions per year. They can simply (and in many different ways) state Islam is a lie – the Imams have been lying to you – the Koran they show you is a forgery – women are not to be suppressed – the imams and totalitarian leaders of your country are keeping you all in a state of savagery – the west has it right! etc…
    Low tech gets the job done. Continue even over the protests of muslim leaders.

  • johninohio1

    “…pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”
    A euphemistic definition of slavery. How generous of them.

  • 8ball

    Brad Sherman needs to be informed that ISIS is emulating Muhammed by engaging in the same conduct as the so-called prophet of this so-called religion.

  • 8ball

    Ostrichism doesn’t work in the real world.

  • andrewwhitehead

    Another politician speaking on Islam, a subject of which he knows very little. Do not expect “moderate” American Muslims to do anything significant; they have the press against them, the White House scorns them, and the congress claims that they exist, but does nothing to encourage them because it would be “racist” to tell the alphabet soup Islamic terrorist groups to stop murdering the name of “god”.

    No, if we need a strategy to defeat the terrorists, it is this: kill them all, down to the last one. No negotiation, no surrender, no accommodation. They want death and it should be government policy to bring it to them.

  • mikeman

    Sherman has always been a bad joke. He seems incredibly ignorant or naive. But then again, he is a democrat. Its par for the course.

  • AbsolutelyRight

    I would like him to hand deliver the letter to ISIS.

  • Justactsplease

    “…think they ought to hire one or two experts in Islamic jurisprudence…” They don’t have them already?

  • USARetired

    Islam is the most evil ‘NON-Religeon’ in the World, and is ‘Faciest Ideology’! There is no place in America for this trash which cannot legally coexist along side democracy !

  • Adhemarde

    I guess he is looking for “moderate” muslim jurists. He will know one when he sees one – it will be the guy riding on the unicorn.

    • ServosT

      No problem, CAIR has a whole stable of muslims who will play the moderate for willing drupes like Sherman.