NEW DELHI // More than 1,000 Muslim clerics in India have ratified a religious ruling that condemns the ISIL and calls the extremist group’s actions “un-Islamic”, a top Indian Muslim leader said on Wednesday.
Religious leaders from hundreds of mosques, education institutions and civic groups across India have signed the edict, or fatwa, saying the actions of the ISIL group go against the basic tenets of Islam.
The edict was issued by a leading Mumbai-based cleric, Mohammed Manzar Hasan Ashrafi Misbahi, and has been signed by the leaders of all the main mosques in India, which has the world’s third-largest Muslim population.
“The acts of ISIL are inhuman and un-Islamic,” Mr Misbahi said from Mumbai. “Islam does not allow the killing of even an animal. What ISIL is doing is damaging to Islam.”
Mr Misbahi said the fatwa – which is around 1,100 pages – has been sent to the leaders of more than 50 countries, seeking their endorsement.
Muslim clerics across India will speak to their followers after Friday prayers, explaining the contents of the edict and why it is important to denounce the ISIL, said Abdul Rehman Anjaria, president of the Islamic Defence Cyber Cell.
Among prominent supporters of the edict are the chief clerics of New Delhi’s iconic Jama Masjid mosque, as well as the leaders of the Muslim shrines of Ajmer Dargah and Nizauddin Aulia in northern India and several Muslim sects.
Anjaria said the ISIL extremist group was enticing young people to join by using social media for propaganda and giving a false impression of Islam.
“There is no doubt the ISIL has damaged the image of Islam,” he said. “Islam does not allow the killing of people in the name of religion. What they are doing to women ... Islam teaches us to respect women.”
Over the past few months, Indian authorities have stopped around two dozen young people from leaving the country to join ISIL fighters. The group’s extremist ideology has not found many supporters in India, with officials saying they have evidence that 17 Indians have joined the ISIL.
India’s 172 million Muslims mostly follow a moderate version of the religion and have opposed the extreme practices of the ISIL group and Al Qaeda.
Muslims constitute about 14 per cent of India’s population of nearly 1.3 billion.
* Associated Press
