Shias are totally against Wahabi terrorism but its strain from centuries past forces its followers to obey the violent re-interpretation of true Islam

The hardcore terrorist group (un-)Islamic State’s affiliate in the region, known as (un-)Islamic State in Khorasan (ISIS-K) and headquartered in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the devastating attack on a mosque/Imambargah in Kucha Risaldar, a predominantly Shia Muslim neighbourhood in Peshawar. The ISIS-K terrorists on March 4, 2022, attacked a crowded Shia congregation with a powerful suicide bomb in Qissa Khwani Bazar in ‘Wahabi’ Pakistan, when the victims were offering Friday prayers. The death toll was an instant 68, while around 300 were critically injured.

Earlier, on August 19, 2021, Pakistani terrorists by ripping a powerful bomb in a Moharram procession had killed three Shias and wounded over 50 people in Bahawalnagar of Pakistan. On October 8 the same year, (un)-Islamic State (Daesh) terrorists struck at a mosque packed with Shia worshippers during a Friday prayer in northern Afghanistan. The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said in a tweet: “Initial information indicates more than 100 Shia Muslims killed and injured in a suicide blast inside the mosque.” (In June 2015, then British PM David Cameron told BBC and other media houses: “I wish you would stop calling it ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria; now only IS) because it is not an Islamic State. It is a poisonous death cult that is seducing youth to fight for it.”

ISIS terrorists again on October 16, 2021, in a deadly suicide attack on a Shia mosque in southern Afghanistan, killed 63 people and wounded scores more. After the October 8 attack, the IS-K thugs said in a statement that Shias will be targeted in their homes and strongholds by its network, whenever possible. Al-Naba, the IS group’s weekly, had published this warning on October 17, reported Khaama Press. Earlier, the ISIS beasts on May 12, 2020, attacked a maternity hospital in the Dashte-e-Barche area of Kabul, killing 13 people including two newborn babies, for whom the journey from cradle to the grave lasted only a few hours.

Islam prohibits violence and promotes peace and justice. The Quran says: “Prophet Mohammad was sent to the world as a mercy to mankind (21:107).” It categorically states: “Allah abhors any disturbance of peace (2:205).” When there is no permission of violence in Islam, why is there worldwide terrorism in its name? The answer to this crucial question is that 50 years after the death of Prophet Mohammad in 632 AD, the true faith of Islam was hijacked by self-proclaimed caliphs to use the religion as a platform for establishing their empire with the support of the growing influence of Islam in Arabia. As a result, the true religion started getting defaced by virulent political power wielders through the might of the sword.

This devastating process mainly began by the immoral and hardcore terrorist Yazid- ibn-Muawia who, after subscribing to Islam outwardly with the criminal intention to capture political power, proclaimed himself as “false caliph of Islam” and leader of the “faithful” by terrorising and killing Muslims through his gang of thugs to silence the opposing voices. The real successor of the Hon’ble seat of Caliphate was Hazrat Imam Husain, the grandson of the Prophet, whose rightful succession was usurped by Yazid. He demanded allegiance from Hazrat Imam Husain to acknowledge him as leader of the faithful. Imam Husain refused to pledge allegiance to the criminal/murderer as the caliph. Yazid then assassinated Hazrat Imam Husain and 72 of his family members and companions mercilessly in the desert of Karbala (Iraq) in 680 AD. Yazid defaced the true teachings of religion and pseudo-Islam emerged. This was the beginning of terrorism in the cloak of Islam.

However, the current scenario of terrorism is the revival of Yazid’s model of terrorism in the form of Wahabi/Salafi ideology, an offshoot of the Sunni Muslim sect. Wahabism can best be explained through the words of British historian Charles Allen, who in his book God’s Terrorists — The Wahabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad, writes: “Wahabi is the guiding ideology behind modern Islamist terrorism. In the late 18th century, a violently intolerant re-interpretation of Islam took root in the Arabian desert. Its followers became known after their founder (Sheikh Muhammad Najdi ibn Abd-al-Wahab) as Wahabis.” Wahabi ideology is enshrined in Kitab-al Tawhid (book of unity), which prescribes forceful conversion of Muslims and others to his Wahabi ideology wherein he manifestly says: “Follow my ideology, else get ready to be killed.”

His ideology was strongly opposed by Muslim masses, especially the Shia Muslims. However, when the opposition mounted against his ideology, Najdi was shrewd enough to find a patron in Muhammad-ibn-Saud, a Bedouin tribal chief. Ibn Saud belonged to the Zionist tribe of Anza Ben Wael. Islam is not the original religion of Saudi Arab rulers. Sheikh Najdi, too, belonging to Zionist ancestry, not only made an alliance with Ibn Saud but also got his daughter married to Ibn Saud’s son Abd-Al-Aziz Ibn Saud. Thereafter, the faith was of Sheikh Najdi and the sword was of Ibn Saud. A dynastic Government was established as a result of this partnership, which is still continuing in the name of Saudi Arabia.

Again the question arises as to why Wahabi terrorists kill Shia Muslims? The answer is that Shia Muslims are totally against Wahabi terrorism.

(The writer is a legal journalist and author. The views expressed are personal.)