Eis het ontslag van Jozias van Aartsen

#7402: - IS emerges from radical Islamic jurisprudence 

 This article presents a gross distortion of Ibn Taymiyya's beliefs as provided in his fatwas. The author obviously knows nothing about Ibn Taymiyya and is repeating the standard falsifications about him. On top of that, Mr. Khilkhal completely confuses even the most basic facts about Ibn Taymiyya. One brief example must suffice. Ibn Taymiyya was born in Harran in what is today Syria. "Mardin" is not a town. Rather it refers to a status of certain regions that form what Ibn Taymiyya called a status between Dar al-Silm (abode of security), which refers to Muslim lands, and Dar al-Harb, which refers to lands that exist in either a potential or actual state of war. The "maridin" territories have what we would call non-aggression treaties with Muslim lands. Ibn Taymiyya says that Muslims can live and work in these regions so long as they can practice the basics of their religion. The details of this fatwa can be found in Majmu' Fatawa Ibn Taymiyya, vol. 28, p. 240. As for the misuse of Ibn Taymiyya,'s fatwas by modern militant sects, this is a deplorable situation in and of itself. Ibn Taymiyya lived during a turbulent time of the later Mongol invasions. He certainly advocated a jihad against the invading Il-Khans who had only nominally converted to Islam in the 1290s. It was a series of invasions that prompted him to petition the Mamluk rulers of Egypt and Syria to fight against them. All of his actions were directed to the Mamluk government, and he never advocated independent military action outside the authority of the rulers. In general, I would close this post by saying that Ibn Taymiyya was not a radical preacher. His views were grounded solidly in the opinions of earlier scholars such as Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi'i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal. I am rather disappointed at the shallow and superficial reporting that makes up this article.