Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-08-20

The Jamiatul Ulama South Africa has condemned  the reported acts of brutality and mass murders of the people of the regions of Iraq and Syria where a group said to be led by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has declared an Islamic state, and, hence a caliphate.

In a statement by Jamiatul Ulama, secretary general Moulana Ebrahim Bham said a caliphate is an aspiration of Muslims who reflect of the golden era of Islam that was characterised by sound rule of law, protection of rights of non-hostile minorities as well as the entrenchment of justice and equity.

“Warfare does not absolve the members of any Islamic caliphate, state or entity from the responsibility of observance of human rights and the rules of engagement where women, children and the elderly as well as all civilian non-combatants, their lives and property, are never targeted but safeguarded.”

“It therefore comes strange to us that an Islamic state would be founded on atrocities, massacres and extra-judicial punishments that include summary executions of individuals suspected of crimes,” said Moulana Bham

Many years of foreign policies that prop up client regimes and illegally wage imperial wars of occupation have resulted in alienation and radicalism.  It is this phenomenon that has brooked groups harbouring a sense of humiliation, leading to vengeance and giving rise to militarism and the upheavals we see in the Middle East.

“Regardless of this reality, we see no reason why the Islamic state can position itself as a political order with an attractive prospect for the masses when their record of governance is no better than those polities it seeks to replace.”

(Twitter: @Faizie143)