They are at pains to distance Islamic State from fundamental Islam, but even in the end, the obvious has to shine through.
Certainly, the Islamic State’s use of scripture is selective, but rarely is scripture simply plucked from the texts.
NOTE: Selective only in the sense that abrogation demands the more violent and intolerant verses to take priority over the tamer Meccan portion of the koran.
Experts weigh in (part 1): How does ISIS approach Islamic scripture?
| March 24, 2015 9:05am
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A collection of fatwas issued by the Islamic State further exemplifies this legal approach. In issuing a ruling, the authors directly interface with scripture and arrive at an individual judgment. Yet they are also keen to situate their rulings within the broader Islamic legal tradition, pointing out the different positions taken by various legal scholars and schools over time. Sometimes their rulings reflect minority opinions from the tradition, as was the case with justifying the immolation of the Jordanian pilot, and the group seizes on those opinions to make its case.
The Islamic State’s approach to scripture—and to the theological and legal traditions surrounding it—can be summed up as follows: In matters of theology, the group promotes a strict and uncompromising understanding of the Salafi creed. Muslims who hold the wrong beliefs can and must be killed. On matters of law, the group cuts its own way within the larger legal tradition, often invoking premodern legal authorities whose positions accord with its own. Certainly, the Islamic State’s use of scripture is selective, but rarely is scripture simply plucked from the texts.
