L’islam contro gli islamisti. Reazioni musulmane alle rivendicazioni del cosiddetto “Stato islamico”

On June 29, 2014 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, at the height of an escalation
of violence and terror that devastated northern Iraq and Syria, proclaimed
the birth of the caliphate under the aegis of his terrorist organization, the
so-called “Islamic State”. This act was judged by the Muslim world as a
plateal challenge to Islamic orthodoxy itself. This provocative initiative has
triggered a global reaction of the international Muslim community. Numerous
voices of individuals and associations of the Muslim world have risen to
condemn as illegitimate the claim to the caliphate of the so-called “Islamic
State”, accompanying the criticism with arguments drawn from the very
same legal tradition of Islam. Among the numerous reactions, this contribution
analyzes three of them, representative of as many trends in which the
contemporary Muslim world is articulated. The Letter to Baghadadi, promoted
by a group of Muslims in the United States and widely shared internationally;
the Declaration against terrorism and extremism promoted by
the Great Imam of al-Azhar, the most authoritative institution in the Sunni
world; finally, a declaration emanating from extremist Islamic groups rival
to the “Islamic State”. In all the answers there emerges a strong reaction that
comes from the very heart of Islam and based on Islamic arguments that in
fact delegitimize any claim to the caliphate of the alleged “Islamic State”.