President Rodrigo Duterte sought the extension of martial law from Congress to five more months to quell the rebellion (if not outright conquest) by the Daesh- or Islamic State-inspired Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups in Marawi City.
But the ancient “hudud” of the Arabic Jahiliya (Desert Dark Age), which these groups are trying to restore in a contemporary kilafa (caliphate), could be several times more threatening to human security and civil liberty than the modern-day martial law declarations of Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Duterte combined. It promotes mass killings without trial in times they unilaterally declare a state of war. Indeed, the IS in one post has claimed to have reimposed crucifixion as punishment for apostasy.
It takes factual basis of rebellion or invasion to declare martial law, subject to scrutiny for either extension or rejection by Congress. But for the kilafa to revive the Dark Age hudud, it only takes a state of war to justify attacks in “jihad al-qital” (armed jihad or struggle).
For mere presumption, a Muslim adjudged as “munafiq” (hypocrite) could be meted the “death penalty” without trial in periods the Daesh may deem a “state of war.” Or a Christian believed to be the nth generation descendant of Muslim ancestors could be executed for “apostasy.. in times of war.”
Professor Julkipli Wadi of the University of the Philippines Institute of Islamic Studies says the beginnings of extremism took stand on the Muslims’ view of “One Ummah” (i.e. worldwide community of followers), “as opposed to the western concept of nation-states,” separating the believers of Islam by borders of national territories and tribal identities.
To Wadi, such contention on the Muslim ummah would lead to “movements against the status quo” of established Muslim governments bound by the Pan-Arabism of the 1950s through the 1960s.
In those decades, Egyptian poet Sayid Qut’b, a political activist and staunch critic of the status quo of Muslim governments, founded the Iquanun Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood fraternity in Al-Azhar University in Cairo). Qut’b wrote radical materials in Arabic, including his famous books, “The Milestone,” and he even attempted to annotate the Qur’an in his book “In the Shadow of the Qur’an.” But Qut’b himself admitted that “The Shadow of the Qur’an” was not the exact meaning of the Muslim Holy Book, and thus, the use of the word “shadow” in it.
Qut’b, as a literary giant, tried both to de-contextualize and re-contextualize the meaning of the Book in view of the political realities obtaining in his time. In fact, Qut’b, whose books abound in Arabic version in many local madaris, is considered as the “father of modern-day jihad.”
Incidentally, one of Qutb’s Arab students would later become a close adviser or even a political mentor of Osama Bin Laden in the Afghanistan wars.
Interestingly, too, the late Ustaz Salamat Hashim, chairman emeritus of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and former President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia, were classmates and both became moderate members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Al-Azhar University in the 1950’s.
In 1966, President Gamal Abdelnasser ordered Qut’b hanged to death. The Egyptian high tribunal had sentenced to death Qut’b and a number of his companions. One of them, the blind Sheikh Omar Abdulraman, was able to escape Egypt—but would much later be sentenced to life term for plotting the first World Trade Center Bombing in 1993.
Two years ago, more than 200 Islamic muftis from different parts of the world wrote IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, protesting a number of fatwa (opinions) that he had issued. They said those fatwa revived the ancient Arab tradition of slavery and even promoted sex off-wedlock with women he considered “slaves” (Islam prohibits illicit sex). They said fatwa is not ordinarily issued without proper and appropriate learning and understanding of the Qur’an and the Hadith (written deeds and rulings of the Prophet).
Baghdadi’s fatwa, Muslim scholars noted, apparently twists the verse by applying it to present-day Christians, even if it was not intended for Christians, as there were, in fact, no Christians residing in Makkah ever since, unlike in Madina.
Young learners would have no other way of checking interpretations that were either twisted to suit a modern-day situation, or are lacking of their original contexts.
Two weeks before the Marawi Siege, hundreds of Ulama gathered at a scholarly Summit in Cotabato City in which they drew a common position on the advent of “Violent Extremism.”
The local Muslim scholars have since ruled in one voice that acts of senseless killings of innocent people, such as bombings and beheading, which local extremist groups have virtually admitted on social media posts, violated the teachings of Islam, and thus, must be condemned by all sectors of the Muslim society.
The local muftis have also ruled that extremism should be fought both in terms of military power even on the part of the MILF, as well as through continuing education program (Pagtatarbiyya) for the young generation of Muslims on the part of the government, according to summaries of the rulings released recently by the Dharul Ifta (House of Opinion) of the Bangsamoro, and the Dharul Ifta of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.