Meet the Muslim leader helping Obama fight ISIL
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עברית (Hebrew)
The White House is taking a closer look at the role of religion in its campaign against violent extremism in the Middle East. In a speech last week laced with references to religion, President Obama called on Muslim leaders and youth alike to reject the barbaric ideologies of extremist groups like the Islamic State.
Obama provided examples of religious leaders engaged in the ideological fight against extremism, quoting a Muslim sheikh who said, “We must declare war on war, so the outcome will be peace upon peace.” This sheikh is Abdullah bin Bayyah, a 79-year-old cleric.
Bin Bayyah, in his role as a religious scholar, seeks to educate Muslims about the fallacy of extremist groups’ religious ideology. In a recent fatwa (religious edict) he issued recently, entitled “This Is Not the Path to Paradise,” Bin Bayyah condemned the co-optation of Islamic values by extremist groups like the so-called Islamic State, and the violent acts they perpetrate. “We have to put forward intelligent responses and correct misunderstandings,” he said on Friday.
Bin Bayyah has previously met with staff of the National Security Council at the White House, where he discussed his efforts to counter al-Qaida’s violent messaging in the Middle East.
In 2010, bin Bayyah spoke out against another scholar’s fatwa that had been used to justify Qaida violence. “Anyone who seeks support from this fatwa for killing Muslims or non-Muslims,” he said then, “has erred in his interpretation and has misapplied the revealed texts.”
