Officially, the taking of hostages is forbidden in Islam. A stance reiterated today by the Ithna’ashari scholars in Iraq. So that means the kidnappers are either Sunni or are acting out of an interest other than Islam. I don’t believe they are Sunni at this point – are at least are not acting under that identity – as it would disenfranchise the community. These are pseudo-nationalists, and the behavior is not intrinsic to Muslims. Just a clarification for those who were wondering if hostage taking was tenet of faith.
Related Posts
Follow-up
Muslim WakeUp! has an interesting article on East Turkestan. I thoroughly enjoyed the article, and had a few thoughts that I posted in the comments, and which I am including here in the entirety. I’m doing this re-publication because I need it to set-up a post I’m working on regarding Shi’ism. A very well researched piece, thank you for sharing. I have two comments on it that I’d like to share. You mention that racial divisions in Islam did not really exist until the colonial period, and I’m not sure that is as true as you indicate. In S. H.…
IIA Conference – Teaching Islam Panel
Here are my notes from the Teaching Islam Panel. Please keep in mind that this is a stream of consciousness capture of my interpretation of what they had to say. (sorry for the terrible formatting – no time to fix it right now)
ABC Primetime – How Muslims Are Treated in the US
Video: abc Primetime – How Muslims Are Treated In USA h/t Majdal http://twitter.com/majdal/status/1491763418