Jordanian roots

ISIL knew Kassasbeh’s death would not play well among most Muslims. But mainstream Muslims were never their target audience.

ISIL attempts to explain virtually all its actions under the auspices of religion. However, killing people by immolation is a clear transgression of Islamic norms — forbidden by the prophetic injunction that “only God tortures by fire.” Therefore in burning Kassasbeh to death, ISIL’s self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has basically presumed rights reserved for God. The group justified this apparent sacrilege by quoting jihadi-favorite scholar Ibn Tamiyyah, progenitor of the Hanbali School of Islamic jurisprudence, from which Salafism emerged. Ibn Tamiyyah authored the concept of takfir (excommunication), which under certain circumstances allows the righteous to declare fellow believers as apostates and treat them as such. This is an important distinction: the Quran mandates that Muslims protect other “people of the book,” and even shields nonbelievers under the injunction that there can be no compulsion in religion. But infidels are held in contempt. However, even if takfir justifies treating believers as apostates, the Prophet Muhammad expressly forbade this specific mode of execution. To circumvent this injunction, ISIL turned to another controversial ruling by Ibn Tamiyyah, which permits the righteous to defensively engage in depraved and illicit acts to dissuade the enemy from further aggression. Since burning Kassasbeh to death, ISIL has immolated a number of Iraqi civilians for cooperating with security forces. The incidents have a common thread: The victims were all Muslims accused of collaborating with the enemy. ISIL did not burn alive its American, European and Japanese captives or Arabs from religious minorities. It is remarkable for a Salafi fundamentalist movement to suggest that juridical rulings can overrule the prophet’s direct prohibition. Its attempts at justification failed. Jihadists widely condemned Kassasbeh’s immolation, with Al-Qaeda holding it up as a “conclusive proof of ISIL’s deviance.” One of ISIL’s own clerics even broke rank, calling for Kassasbeh’s executioner to be arrested; he was promptly arrested himself.