The Impurity of Purity?
The third from the last Sura of the Qur’an (112) is titled “al-Ikhlas,” which means “The Purity.” It is allegedly one of the earliest revelations of the Prophet Muhammad. It reads as follows:
Gracious, Most Merciful
Say: He is Allah, the One and Only!
Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
He begetteth not nor is He begotten.
And there is none like unto Him.
A basic spiritual exposition of the Sura can be found here. Al-Iklas is an expression of Islam’s fervent devotion to the “oneness” of God. Naturally orthodox Christians and orthodox Muslims disagree about the nature of the one, true, and living God.
With this as a background, the posting [translated at Memri,org] of a jihadist platform by “The Islamic Party of East Turkestan (a mainly Muslim autonomous region in northwestern China) on the Islamist forum “Al-Ikhlas” on May 21 was particularly striking.
The platform includes the following statements:
“We are a group that promotes jihad for the sake of Allah… Its members, [united in] monotheism, devoutness, piety, and jihad for the sake of Allah, aim to liberate Muslim East Turkestan from the apostate
Communist Chinese occupation… and impose shari’a [law] in [this region]. By cooperating with the Muslim mujahideen throughout the Islamic world [we aim to] restore the Islamic Caliphate and impose shari’a throughout the world.”
“To cooperate with all the groups waging jihad for the sake of Allah throughout the world, in order to repel the attacks of the apostates…and drive the Crusaders, Zionists and apostates from our Islamic
world.”
“We believe that any presence of the apostate Chinese occupiers – be it military, governmental, political or economic – is a legitimate target for jihad… This statement is a declaration of war upon them,
and they must therefore leave East Turkestan immediately.”
“We consider the presence of Chinese immigrants in Muslim East Turkestan illegitimate. They represent the most tangible form of Chinese occupation… They must leave Turkestan and return to their
places of origin. This statement is [our] first and last warning [to them].”
“We reject…the deviant [ideology of] democracy in all its forms and [declare] our opposition to them.”
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