{"id":42417,"date":"2014-12-29T20:14:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T20:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=42417"},"modified":"2014-12-29T20:14:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T20:14:43","slug":"whose-black-banner-is-it-anyway-and-the-khawarij","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=42417","title":{"rendered":"Whose black banner is it, anyway? &#8212; and the Khawarij"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[ by <strong>Charles Cameron<\/strong> &#8212; a flag flapping in the wind, in the mind ]<br \/>\n.<\/p>\n<p>You see this flag?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>Dear ISIS, if it takes 63 pages to explain why you are not Khawarij, you just might be Khawarij. <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/xfwSNt8peJ\">pic.twitter.com\/xfwSNt8peJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; J.M. Berger (@intelwire) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intelwire\/status\/549243146723684353\">December 28, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Who flies it?<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>The media often call it &#8220;the Islamic State flag&#8221; these days, and indeed in the photo above, it&#8217;s a convoy of <strong>IS \/ Daesh<\/strong> vehicles that&#8217;s flying it.<\/p>\n<p>But in the recent 13th issue of<strong> Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula<\/strong>&#8216;s magazine, <em>Inspire<\/em>, that same flag is used as an icon for both <strong>Mohammad Jawlani<\/strong>, the emir of AQ&#8217;s Iraqi branch, <strong>Jabhat al-Nusra<\/strong>, and <strong>Mukhtar Abu Zubair<\/strong>, late emir of <strong>al-Shabaab<\/strong> &#8212; and indeed, it also features in AQAP&#8217;s <strong>Malahem Media<\/strong> logo:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/whose-black-banner.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/whose-black-banner.png\" alt=\"whose black banner\" width=\"602\" height=\"280\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-42418\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/whose-black-banner.png 602w, https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/whose-black-banner-300x139.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It is one of the ironies of the age that the image of a black banner featuring the white circular &#8220;seal of the Prophet&#8221; is flown by both sides in the contentious rivalry between the <strong>Islamic State<\/strong> and <strong>Al Qaida<\/strong> for leadership in the global jihad .<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>And who are the <strong>Khawarij <\/strong>today?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joas Wagemakers<\/strong>, in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jihadica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Seceders-and-Postponers-An-Analysis-of-the-Khawarij-and-Murjia-Labels-in-Polemical-Debates-between-Quietist-and-Jihadi-Salafis.pdf\">\u2018Seceders\u2019 and \u2018Postponers\u2019? &#8212; an analysis of the \u2018Khawarij\u2019 and \u2018Murji\u2019a\u2019 labels in polemical debates between quietist and jihadi-salafis<\/a>, identifies the central distinctive opinion of the Khawarij thus:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The first of these is the Khawarij\u2019s belief that revolt against Muslim rulers was allowed if they were deemed insufficiently pious. When \u2018Ali accepted arbitration with Mu\u2018awiya, the people later known as Khawarij reportedly shouted \u2018judgement is God\u2019s alone\u2019 (la hukm illa li-llah). In the context of that event, this referred to their belief that only God had the authority to arbitrate, not human beings, and that \u2018Ali should not have accepted Mu\u2018awiya\u2019s offer. The slogan later came to represent their broader view that all judgements and rulings should be left to God, thus applying Qur\u2019anic rulings so strictly that they expelled Muslims guilty of major sins from their community and fought them. Because they believed sinful Muslims to be unbelievers (kuffar, singular: kafir), they directly applied passages from the Qur\u2019an pertaining to jihad against non-Muslims to those of their co-religionists who were less than perfectly pious.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Does any of that sound familiar?<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>Well and truly trolled, <strong>JM<\/strong>! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ by Charles Cameron &#8212; a flag flapping in the wind, in the mind ] . You see this flag? Dear ISIS, if it takes 63 pages to explain why you are not Khawarij, you just might be Khawarij. pic.twitter.com\/xfwSNt8peJ &mdash; J.M. Berger (@intelwire) December 28, 2014 Who flies it? ** The media often call [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,892,526,1047,210,897,962,393,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-al-qaida","category-black-banner","category-charles-cameron","category-isis","category-islamist","category-jm-berger-2","category-shabaab","category-twitter","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42417"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42454,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42417\/revisions\/42454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}