Killing of mother in Saudi Arabia sparks debate about Islamic scholar

[Valin]

First Post/Reuters:

Reuters Jul 6, 2016

 

DUBAI Driven by radical beliefs, twin brothers allegedly killed their mother in Saudi Arabia after she tried to stop them from joining Islamic State in Syria in a case that outraged Saudi Arabians worried about rising Islamic militancy. The June 24 killing, in a country where respect for elders is seen as a bedrock of society, whipped up a storm of debate over the possible influence of a mediaeval Islamic scholar revered as a forerunner of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam.

 

Saudi interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki said the pair were suspects in the killing. "The only thing (we have established) is that they (the twins) follow Takfiri ideology," Turki told Reuters, using a phrase which Saudi authorities use to refer to Islamist militancy. "The case is still under investigation," said the spokesman, who declined to give further details.

 

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IMPASSIONED DEBATE

 

The case has caused impassioned debate because Islam teaches that devotion to caring for elders is a pathway to heaven.

 

Some scholars and media commentators have asked if it was the teachings of Ibn Taymiyya, a 13th century Islamic scholar from Damascus known for his fatwas (religious opinion) about takfir that were behind young militants killing family members they regarded as apostates.

 

Islamic State embraces the concept of takfir, often quoting Ibn Taymiyya to exhort its followers to kill other Muslims seen as apostates, including relatives. The word takfir is derived from the Arabic word kafer, which means unbeliever.

 

It was Ibn Taymiyya who inspired the founder of Wahhabism, the 18th century Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab. Wahhabism, the religious movement espoused by rulers of Saudi Arabia, demands rigid adherence to what it sees as Islam's original practices and a rejection of more modern ideas.

 

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