IS' 'jihad fisabilillah' is fake - Corps director

Many Muslims in this country were lately influenced by the 'Jihad Fisabilillah' offered by the IS, with some of them willing to leave their jobs and their families solely to join the jihad in Syria with the hope of becoming martyrs there.

The truth is their tyrannical acts of killing are deviated from the true teachings of Islam, said Armed Forces Religious Corps director, Major General Datuk Kamarudin Mamat.

He said obedience and piety to Allah would not be achieved through hasty action such as by joining fake jihad offered by the IS militant group, as the shortest path to get into heaven.

"Martyrs cannot be achieved by suicide or killing of innocent people and joining the IS struggle that is clearly contrary to the creed and Shari'a of Islam," he told BERNAMA.

The National Fatwa Council on Monday issued an edict saying that the act of participating, helping or giving aid to the IS militant group was 'haram' (forbidden) for Muslims.

Its chairman, Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Abd Shukor Husin said participating in the IS group's fight was far from the actual meaning of jihad from the Islamic perspective, since the reason of the war itself was unclear.

"It is obvious that IS is not right and against Islamic teachings when they claimed that the blood of the people who fight against them are halal (allowed) and thus, can be violently killed, which clearly contravenes the Islamic teachings," he said.

Commenting on jihad in Islam, Kamarudin explained that the general responsibility of jihad was upon the army which was entrusted with the country's sovereignty and it became 'fardhu kifayah' (social obligations) during peace.

"It is allowed for society to come together during war and it becomes 'fardhu ain' (personal obligation) to protect our country, according to each and everyone's capacity when we are being violated and the situation is no longer under control," he said.

He said the real intention of jihad must be sincere for the sake of Allah while jihad by IS was more about revenge and did not represent the fight of all Muslims, but only for the benefit of some parties.

Kamarudin said this fake jihad by the IS militant group was made based on the misinterpretation of Al-Quran and Al-Hadith.

He said the lack of understanding on the true meaning of jihad made many to be interested and blindly follow the IS propaganda.

"The goal will not justify the means, the IS' jihad does not take into account the restrictions outlined by Islam during a war and inhumanely killing civilians, women, children and prisoners of war at will," he said.

Kamarudin said in Islam, war was the last form of solution when one failed to achieve a peaceful agreement to defend oneself and to open ways of preaching Islam with strong reasons, according to Islamic ruling.

"If we look at the 'sirah' of Prophet Muhammad (prophetic biography), he only allowed the Muslims to fight in a war after 15 years of spreadinig his dakwah, even when during those years, a lot of Muslims had been killed and tortured by the enemies of Islam," he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Community Crime Care president, Tan Sri Musa Hassan said religious authorities needed to provide explanations, especially to the youngsters on the meaning of real jihad.

"This is important as we need to identify the movement of suspicious religious groups. People can easily be attracted to these groups and will try to involve themselves in jihad outside the country.

"This happened so many times. We also need to monitor the foreigners as we need to know who they are and why they are in our country. If they would like to open a religious school, we need to supervise what is being taught to the public. We have to identify their ideology," he said.

The former inspector-general of police said the most worrying factor was the involvement of the national security forces personnel like the police and the army in the militant group.