ISIS Claims Mohammad Was Wrong By Destroying Churches and Relics !! [READ]

ISIS yesterday destroyed an ancient Christian monastery which has been described as the equivalent of Canterbury Cathedral. Just weeks earlier, it raided Mosul Museum and filmed themselves destroying all the relics on show, including priceless, irreplaceable Assyrian statues. This is a throwback to the infamous episode of when the Taliban destroyed the ancient great Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001. And the rationalisation is the same: in typical Wahhabi-inspired interpretation, any cultural artifact that is either culturally foreign or is somehow related to a sacred theme is a threat to a "good Muslim" because that "good" and "pure" Muslim will automatically be tempted into the unforgivable sin of polytheism. To the point where there are influential elements in the Wahhabi establishment that want to destroy the tomb of the Prophet himself.

This is obvious stupidity. It also betrays a paradoxical lack of faith in the strength of their own faith. I for one cannot quite see how a few statues of Assyrian cherubs and kings is likely to rekindle the cult of Ishtar.

I would, in fact, argue Islam itself prohibits this kind of senseless vandalism. Indeed, by destroying relics of Mosul, ISIS is actually committing a blasphemy ("shirk"). Many of these relics have existed before the days of the Prophet Muhammad. Not only did the Prophet and the Salaf (the three generations of Muslims that lived after the time of Muhammad, and are believed to be the most righteous) preserve many such artifacts and relics in their own time, but almost all Muslim rulers and scholars of the past up until the advent of Wahhabism also maintained them.

Scholars I have spoken to say this new attitude of destruction is, ironically, an unsanctioned innovation and thus a form of shirk. In effect, ISIS/Taliban/Wahhabis and similarly inspired vandals are claiming they are more enlightened than the Prophet Muhammad, his companions, his immediate successors and all previous Muslim rulers and scholars. According to them, all previous Muslims including the Prophet himself were essentially wrong and their own interpretation of what counts as polytheism and what can inspire it is correct. So the Prophet was wrong, or naïve in his reading of the Quran -- but have no fear; 26-year old Mohammed from London is going to correct this error, with his eminent insights after his long and arduous Islamic studies in... Information Systems.


Now it is certainly true that the Prophet Muhammad did destroy the pagan idols in the Kabaa. But the difference is that these idols were actually being directly worshipped by people at the time, and the cults of these gods posed a threat to the Muslim community. Whereas no one is worshipping the relics in the museum. Just like no Muslims had worshipped the statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan.

Indeed, in the past, many Islamic scholars actively encouraged the preservation of great monuments and relics of civilization, regardless of the fact that they were pre-Islamic. For example, in Egypt, the pyramids and the Sphinx were actively preserved as a reminder of a great civilization that once dominated the land. That such a civilization could be swept away and swallowed by the sand is also an enlightening Islamic moral: the monuments were a reminder that the Will of God transcends the shifts of history.

And still it remains a matter of historical fact that in the Golden Age of the Caliphate, the period of history that the ISIS thugs purport to "re-enact", Islam was an open, accommodating culture, not just eager, but hungry to learn as much as there was to know about the world and its cultures, its religions, its monuments. The Caliphs, the true Caliphs, not the obscure "scholar" at the top of ISIS, did not order monuments to be destroyed or books to be burnt. They ordered monuments to be preserved, or even brought to Islam, and books, from all over the world, from Hindu pagans, from Egyptian Copts, from Greek Atheists to be translated into Arabic. When they did this, Islam was the pinnacle of civilization. But what ISIS preaches is the exact opposite.


Dr Azeem Ibrahim is an International Security Lecturer at the University of Chicago and Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute US Army War College

ISIS welcomes Boko Haram allegiance: tape

Baghdad (AFP) - The Islamic State group welcomed a pledge of allegiance made to it by Boko Haram and vowed to press with its expansion, according to an audiotape Thursday purportedly from its spokesman.

"We announce to you to the good news of the expansion of the caliphate to West Africa because the caliph... has accepted the allegiance of our brothers of the Sunni group for preaching and the jihad," IS spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani said in the message, using the Arabic name for Nigeria's Boko Haram extremist group.

In the tape of some 30 minutes, Adnani urges Muslims to join militants in West Africa and played down "victories" by the US-led coalition and Iraqi forces against his group.

The Sunni radical Sunni movement has seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate" there. It has also drawn expressions of allegiance from jihadists in Egypt and Libya.

On Saturday, an audiotape attributed to Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said "we announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims, Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Husseini al-Qurashi," referring to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Security analysts have said that pledge may only have propaganda value in the short term but could lead to closer links in the future.

Shekau has previously mentioned Baghdadi in videos but stopped short of pledging formal allegiance.

But there have been increasing signs that the Nigerian militants, whose six-year insurgency has claimed more than 13,000 lives and left 1.5 million people homeless, have been seeking a closer tie-up.


IS's Adnani said Muslims must support Boko Haram in West Africa, and claimed that the Islamic State was growing in strength and expanding.

"Our caliphate is resisting and it is advancing in the right direction. We are fighting the Crusaders and the rafidah (Shiites) and day by day the Islamic State is becoming strong," he said.

The tape's release comes as US Security Council diplomats are drafting a resolution to shore up a regional force fighting Boko Haram, and as Iraqi forces were tightening the noose on IS in Tikrit.

Iraqi forces entered IS-held Tikrit, in the northern province of Salaheddin, on Wednesday after a 10-day push to wrest the city back from the jihadists.

A combination of army, police and volunteer forces moved into northern and southern Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and a main IS stronghold after making major gains around the city.

But Adnani said IS "continues to resist.... and the victories proclaimed by the coalition are only illusions", claiming that only "inches of land" in Iraq had been recaptured by loyalist forces.

And he insisted that the group is "sure of its victory" regardless of the challenges it is facing.

"God is on our side and give us the strength to combat this armada of Crusader countries," he said.

For months, IS has been targeted with air strikes from a coalition led by the United States and already suffered territorial setbacks in Syria and Iraq.

ISIS Releases Video Purporting To Show Child Killing Hostage

A highly stylized propaganda video released by Islamic State extremists on Tuesday purports to show the killing of a Palestinian hostage by a young boy.

The Islamic State group identifies the hostage as Muhammad Musallam, a 20-year-old Israeli citizen.

The 13-minute-long video was released by the group's media outlet Furqan and is similar to other releases by the group. The footage begins with an all-black background and title cards that are similar to those used by the group in previous videos. This text is followed by a sequence with special effects akin to a spy film or video game, which claims to show information about agents of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

The video then cuts to Musallam, a resident of East Jerusalem. Musallam is shown speaking to the camera while wearing an orange jumpsuit. He details his alleged recruitment by Israeli intelligence and journey to Syria to report on the Islamic State group. At times his account is shown in a flashback through a black-and-white re-enactment of events.

The next scenes appear to show Musallam kneeling in front of two members of the militant group, one a bearded man in camouflage who speaks in French. The other is a young boy, who appears to shoot the hostage in the head with a handgun.

Footage of the alleged killing is shown in slow motion, and the child is depicted shooting Musallam repeatedly after the initial shot. The video then freezes on a frame showing the boy, which is imposed over the skyline of Jerusalem. The video ends with the same computerized effects showing alleged Mossad agent files as seen earlier in the clip.

The Islamic State's propaganda magazine revealed that the group was holding Musallam captive in an interview published in February in which the hostage purportedly describes how he became a spy with the support of his Palestinian family. The magazine claims Musallam was ordered by the Israeli intelligence service to infiltrate the militant group in Syria, but was found out because he didn't act like the other recruits.

Musallam's father, Said, denies his son was ever a spy. Said Musallam told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in February that his son disappeared from his home in Jerusalem in late 2014 after he was recruited by Islamic State extremists over the Internet. An Israeli security official also told Reuters that Musallam traveled to Turkey on Oct. 24 to fight for the Islamic State "on his own initiative." Musallam's family said he later changed his mind and tried to escape IS-controlled territory, but was captured and held by the group in Syria.

"They did not want to let him leave because if he comes back, he might be caught by the Israelis and tell them what he had seen. So they wanted to get rid of him," Said Musallam told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Musallam's brother Ahmad told Israeli news site Ynet that Muhammad "did not care for religion or politics." The Islamic State militants "used him and tricked him," Ahmad Musallam said.

The Islamic State group is known for using children in its fight for control over Iraq and Syria. This is not the first video released by IS which purports to show the use of a child soldier in propaganda, nor is it the first to show a child allegedly killing a hostage. Other releases have shown a young boy killing two hostages, and images have been distributed of children holding severed heads, The Guardian reported.

ISIS : ‘Jihadi John’ apologizes to his family

Mohammed Emwazi has apologized to his family for the shame he has heaped on them after being unmasked as the ISIS butcher from Britain known as Jihadi John.

The Sunday Times of London reports that Emwazi, 26, a British computer science graduate, had conveyed his message of regret from Syria via a third party.

He is said to be sorry for the “problems and trouble the revelation of his identity has caused” for his parents and siblings, according to an informed source.

However, Emwazi has not expressed any remorse for his barbaric actions, which have included the on-camera beheadings of a number of Western hostages.

The Londoner’s family, originally from Kuwait, have been forced into hiding after Emwazi was identified as Jihadi John 10 days ago.

Ex-Nigerian Chief Justice’s Son Joins Terrorist Group ISIS

A son of a retired Supreme Court Justice and former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais (GCON), 79, has allegedly joined the notorious Islamic terrorist group fighting in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to sources with knowledge of the development.

The sources familiar with the intelligence report presently being reviewed by intelligence chiefs told THEWILL that the man (name withheld) left Nigeria a few days back for Syria, with his two wives and children to fight alongside ISIS, which presently controls large territories in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

THEWILL gathered that the intelligence report came from Saudi Arabia, one of the over 50 countries alongside the United Nations that has designated ISIS as a terrorist organization.

This is the second time a member of a Nigerian elitist family will be linked to a foreign terrorist group. The notorious underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a member of al-Qaeda, who is presently serving a life sentence without parole in the United States, is the youngest son of Katsina born Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a very wealthy Nigerian banker and businessman, who had also served as a federal Minister in the 70s.

Sources said Kaduna born Justice Uwais (GCON), who was CJN from 1995 -2006 and upon retirement served as Chairman of the committee that reviewed Nigeria’s electoral laws in 2007, has been told about the development.

The Nigerian military and its West African allies are presently preoccupied with defeating the Boko Haram, a Nigerian terrorist group responsible for thousands of brutal killings and deadly bombings in northern Nigeria and border towns in Cameroun and Chad.

A son of a retired Supreme Court Justice and former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais (GCON), 79, has allegedly joined the notorious Islamic terrorist group fighting in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to sources with knowledge of the development. - See more at: http://247nigerianewsupdate.co/ex-nigerian-chief-justices-son-joins-terrorist-group-isis/#sthash.Thju8EiN.dpuf

IS executioner 'Jihadi John' named as London tech worker

London (AFP) - "Jihadi John", the masked Islamic State group militant apparently responsible for beheading a series of Western hostages, was named on Thursday as Kuwaiti-born London computer programmer Mohammed Emwazi.

A Washington Post report citing friends, a leading think-tank researching foreign jihadists and a British security official quoted by the New York Times identified Emwazi as being the executioner.

The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College in London said it believed the identity "to be accurate and correct".

"We're pretty confident that the right individual has been named," Shiraz Maher, a senior research fellow at the centre, told AFP.

He believed the leak had come from the United States and pointed out that "there are no further Americans being held hostage by Islamic State".

"I think the US chose to put this out," he said.

London's Metropolitan Police dismissed the reports as "speculation" and said it was "not going to confirm his identity" to protect human lives.

Cage, a civil rights group that was in contact with Emwazi for several years over his alleged harassment by British security services, said that while not 100 percent certain, they believed it was him.

"Jihadi John", nicknamed after Beatle John Lennon due to his British accent, is believed to be responsible for the murders of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig.

He also appeared in a video with Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto shortly before they were killed.

In the videos posted online, he appears dressed all in black with only his eyes exposed, brandishing a knife while launching tirades against the West.

Haines's daughter Bethany told ITV News that her family and those of other victims would "feel closure and relief once there's a bullet between his eyes."

- Stylish and polite -

Cage's research director Asim Qureishi described Emwazi as a "beautiful young man" who had been alienated by his treatment at the hands of the British security services.

Cage published correspondence with Emwazi in which he alleged that a British MI5 secret service agent named "Nick" tried to recruit him while interrogating him at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in 2009.

Emwazi said he was returning with two friends after they were expelled from Tanzania, accused of trying to join Islamist militants in Somalia but on a trip that he claimed was a safari holiday after finishing university.

"Why don't you work for us?" Emwazi quoted "Nick" as telling him. After refusing, he said the officer told him: "You're going to have a lot of trouble, you're going to be known, you're going to be followed."

After being refused entry to Kuwait three times, Cage said Emwazi left his London home in 2013 and that four months later, police told his family he had entered Syria.

The emails appear to point to growing radicalisation -- he finished one in 2010 saying: "May Allah get rid of the oppressors i.e. security agents".

- Ideology, not poverty -

Emwazi, said by Cage to be 26, was identified to the Post by friends and others familiar with the case, with one acquaintance telling the paper: "I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John".

The US National Security Council said in a statement that it would neither confirm nor deny the reports.

Emwazi is from a middle class family and earned a degree in computer programming.

Dozens of reporters gathered outside a modern property believed to belong to his family in the northwest London neighbourhood of Queen's Park.

Qureishi said the family did not believe the allegations against their son and were in a state of "absolute shock".

The University of Westminster said in a statement that it had a record of a Mohammed Emwazi leaving college six years ago and was setting up a pastoral team to provide advice and support to students.

"If these allegations are true, we are shocked and sickened by the news. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families," it said.

Emwazi is described as being quiet and polite with stylish dress sense. In one email to Cage, he complained about police going through his designer clothes.

The rights group claimed that Emwazi had "desperately wanted to use the system to change his situation but the system ultimately rejected him."

Maher said Emwazi's middle-class background belied the conventional wisdom "that terrorism is driven by people from socially deprived backgrounds".

He predicted that his apparent unmasking would deal a "psychological blow" to the IS group.

"They'll feel somewhat deflated that someone they wanted to preserve and protect as an asset has been outed in this way but it won't change anything day to day," Maher added.

British intelligence officers estimate that there are around 700 homegrown militants fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq.

ISIS fighters in Iraq 'have contracted Ebola' : World Health Organisation

According to three media outlets an undisclosed number of militants displaying signs of the disease attended a hospital in the ISIS-held city of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, the Daily Mail reports.

While the reports, from Kurdish and pro-Iraqi sources, remain unconfirmed, WHO spokesman Christy Feig said the group are trying to reach out to officials in ISIS-held areas to offer help.

Feig said: “We have no official notification from [the Iraqi government] that it is Ebola.”

“UN workers are currently banned from entering ISIS-controlled areas in both Iraq and Syria so it is unlikely an operation in the region could be carried out,” according to the report.

According to a report in Iraq's pro-government newspaper, al Sabaah, the disease was brought to Mosul by 'terrorists' arriving 'from several countries' and Africa.