Sunday, May 21, 2017

DAISH’s Version of a Color Revolution Banks on Challenging the Legitimacy of Salafi Scholars of Arab World


(Shaikh Muhammad Bilal)
Color revolution is a term denoted by academics and the international media to describe various movements that developed in Europe particularly in the former communist countries since the early 2000s.  Color revolutionaries employ both nonviolent civil resistance simultaneously with violent struggles to achieve the goal of overthrowing the ruling regime which is perceived to be corrupt and totalitarian. These movements generally adopt a specific color as their symbol and involve multiple stakeholders including NGOs, INGOs, diplomatic missions, etc in organizing creative non-violent resistance and violent struggles. However, the post color revolution results have been far more catastrophic and devastating for the economy and highly disillusioning for the general masses. Military experts from leading countries consider these color revolutions as a new form of warfare or subversion and sabotage in the garb of popular revolution.
 
In the Islamic world, the most prominent proponent of attracting attention to any socio-political cause is religion. Connect Islam with any cause and the results would be explosive with global implications. When Daish emerged in Iraq it was considered as another terrorist and violent non-state actor, however its ideologues including its leadership were eyeing for gigantic consequences for Islamic countries globally. Color revolutions or new form of waging war controlled from complex situation centers reached the Islamic world in the shape of Arab spring but did not have any significant military – political implications. A slight divergence in state continuity by Arab Spring happened but still majority of the regimes not only survive but prevailed. The project of political ideals leading to revolution in the Islamic world subsided due to being rejected by the populace. This political process was well analyzed by Daish and its affiliates reaching a conclusion that to overthrow governments in Islamic countries it had to challenge the religious scholars of all the Muslim countries of the world especially the Salafi Ulema of Arab World. Challenging and de-legitimization of Saudi Ulema who are revered globally by Muslims would result in Daish gaining a coherent foothold and legitimize its actions in overthrowing regimes in Muslim countries. To pursue this aim, Daish replaced political ideals with religion. Its declaration of the Caliphate was to attract disillusioned youth from Muslim countries to its cause and it received widespread support during the start of its nefarious designs.

The declaration of the Caliphate was backed by utter ridicule of the Salafi Ulema and aimed directly at the common Saudi masses to create in them symptoms of revolt against their own state. The results were exceptional as psychopaths, self proclaimed religious zealots, criminals, etc all were now given an opportunity and unwittingly were fulfilling the agenda of Daish and the global conspirators of causing destruction of the Islamic countries especially of Saudi Arabia and capturing the most sacred places of the entire Muslim world, Makkah and Medina. There overt vision of Caliphate is in fact guised under this very aim. The narrative of Muslims do not kill Muslims and Caliphate can never be founded on the blood of the Muslims has been replaced and buried. Daish’s activities, areas under its control and the areas of its brutal and barbaric operations are overwhelmingly in Muslim countries with just sporadic incidents in Europe that too conducted or claimed to gain worldwide notoriety through the mainstream media which feverishly proclaims Daish as the Islamic State, a Caliphate and thus giving them legitimacy to pursue their interests.  

However, Daish’s lone successes has been only that it’s narrative has been connected to the Salafi teachings (the mainstream religious ideology in Saudi Arabia) out of complete ignorance of the edicts issued by Saudi Ulema on it being apostate. This preplanned preposition of Daish gaining a foothold in the global media was a success while rejection of Daish by the Ulema who deliberated to the Muslims and the international community as working against the universality of peace and coexistence being rejected. It was this victory of its narrative being connected to Saudi / Salafi ideology a victory which resulted in Daish spreading its tentacles physically out of Iraq, Syria and beyond and psychologically attracting fascinations from Muslims with lack of in-depth religious knowledge, and of fear among non- Muslims. If this false narrative of Daish which was purposely in sowed by it would have been rejected at the start and the edict of its denunciation given its true projection, their barbarity could have been halted and rolled backed.   
There is a requirement that to turn the tide against Daish, the edicts of the council of grand muftis of Saudi Arabia be the narrative against it. These edicts project the universality of peace and coexistence while utterly rebukes and rejects terrorism in all its manifestations. This has been realized only after the true activities of Daish have become clear that it was trying to adorn itself in the robes of Islam in order to deceive the people, violate sanctities, commit large scale plunder, finally now it is on the run and on the verge of being extinct.     

Why Daish targets Saudi Arabia including the Saudi Ulema and why does it not target the Zionists in Israel? The true destructive potential of Daish lies in undermining the foundations of Saudi Arabia as a cornerstone of the modern Middle East. And it must be understood that at the moment the West which is allied to Saudi Arabia, is almost doing nothing about it. It is just sitting back and watching. In its publications including Rumyiah, Dabiq and Naba, Daish usually explains its version of the Islamic law (sharia) and it considers Muslims as its targets and not non- Muslims especially Israel which is occupying force of sacred places astonishingly are not the priority targets. This smells of a greater plot of regime change through religious fundamentalism as a differential tool to color revolutions elsewhere. If one analyzes the essence of the articles in the publications, Daish considers the destruction of the Jewish state does not prevail over the "jihad against the godless regimes of Muslim countries”. So only the liberation of Islamic holy places in Saudia Arabia – Makkah & Medina and ousting the Saudi dynasty from power is the only priority of their movement which it has branded as “struggle of the faithful”.

This struggle of the faithful according to Daish leadership works according to a well defined secret plan. In 2014, after the Israeli military operation "Enduring rock" against Islamic terrorists who control the Gaza Strip, a spokesman of the Daish justifying the inaction of the organization, who has not come to the aid of Palestinians, confirmed that the destruction of Israel is part of jihad. However, he said Daish works according to plan, and there are a number of steps that need to pass before starting a confrontation with the Jewish state. Currently the initial stage is to bring down regimes especially in Saudia Arabia and to challenge their ulema so that their de-legitimization within their own country and globally occurs at a rapid pace and then Daish’s fills in the religious ideological vacuum left due to this de-legitimization. 

In the current situation, DAISH’s promotion of hate against Salafi/Wahabi Ulema of Arab World is the most worrisome for the Muslims all over the world. The rejection of violent extremist narrative of DAISH by Imam-e-Kaaba, Sheikh Abdul Rehman Al-Sudais, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the Grand Mufti of KSA and other senior Salafi/Wahabi Ulema is very troublesome for Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. As DAISH projects itself as a force fighting a war on the behalf of Muslim World and its ideology is exploitive of sectarian sentiments of Sunnis, many radicalized individuals are trapped to join it. Therefore, it’s the utmost duty of the Sunni Ulemas to create awareness in general public about the evil designs of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and DAISH.


  

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