How the Qur’an Rejects Extremism

Abstract

There is no Qur’anic justification for the murders, barbaric beheadings, and the maimings executed by supposedly faithful Muslims like ISIS loyalists, the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston, the Kouachi Brothers in Paris, or by the followers of Osama Bin Laden on September 11, 2001. The crux of the Qur’anic case against such taking of life in the name of Islam is the wrongful appropriation of God’s (Allah’s) right and power, and committing murder and mayhem in the name of His religion. The Qur’an assigns death by retaliation to all cases of murder (2:178). It also provides “One who kills a human being without the latter being guilty of murder or corruption in the land, it would be as if he has killed the whole of humankind.” ( 5:35). This clear enough, yet the wrong committed by these Sunni extremists also has an ideological dimension: it is idolatry, the worshipping of false gods and idols, in particular the putting of a person such as Al-Baghdadi or Osama Bin Laden, or oneself, in God’s place as the arbiter of who should live and who deserves to die.