By Jana al-Masry | 2024-12-18

Prominent Islamic scholars and Muslim groups and institutions around the world have repeatedly denounced the perversion of Islamic teachings by the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS).

Leading clerics say the group's manipulation of religious texts has tarnished the image of Islam and caused untold harm to Muslims, who have suffered from the group's terrorism along with members of minority religions.

"The terrorist group ISIS has done more harm to Islam than anyone since the spread of the Islamic call," Al-Azhar cleric Sheikh Mahmoud Saad al-Din told Al-Fassel.

The group targets vulnerable youth by "twisting Islamic teachings," he said, often exploiting "a lack of religious and social awareness, as well as poverty and financial need" to draw in supporters and followers.

Its treatment of women through sexual enslavement and "jihad al-nikah" (women being encouraged or coerced into sexual relations with fighters) contradicts the status that Islam has granted women in society, he stressed.

Disrespect for Islamic tenets

"Islam has encouraged the pursuit of knowledge and promoted it since its emergence," said Rajeh Sabry of the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments' Religious Guidance Directorate.

This reverence for learning sharply contrasts with ISIS's widespread destruction of educational institutions, religious sites and medical facilities, he said.

The group destroyed hundreds of schools in its de facto capital of Mosul and elsewhere in its self-described "caliphate," and executed teachers who refused to implement its curriculum.

It systematically targeted religious minorities, including the Yazidi population, along with Islamic traditions that rejected its extremist ideology.

ISIS's destruction of Mosul's Al-Nuri mosque in 2017 was emblematic of its disrespect for Islam and its tenets.

"What is both laughable and tragic," Sabry noted, is that ISIS claims to implement Islamic law while targeting mosques "under the pretext that they are the ones violating this law."

In al-Raqa, Syria, another former stronghold of ISIS, all hospitals and clinics had been damaged or destroyed by the end of the battle to liberate the city from the extremist group, multiple sources reported.

ISIS had converted many hospitals into military bases and weapon storage sites, violating Islamic teachings about protecting medical facilities even if they belong to enemies, Sabry said.