L’islam contro gli islamisti. Reazioni musulmane alle rivendicazioni del cosiddetto “Stato islamico”

On June 29, 2014 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, at the height of an escalation of violence and terror that devastated northern Iraq and Syria, proclaimed the birth of the caliphate under the aegis of his terrorist organization, the so-called “Islamic State”. This act was judged by the Muslim world as a plateal challenge to Islamic orthodoxy itself. This provocative initiative has triggered a global reaction of the international Muslim community. Numerous voices of individuals and associations of the Muslim world have risen to condemn as illegitimate the claim to the caliphate of the so-called “Islamic State”, accompanying the criticism with arguments drawn from the very same legal tradition of Islam. Among the numerous reactions, this contribution analyzes three of them, representative of as many trends in which the contemporary Muslim world is articulated. The Letter to Baghadadi, promoted by a group of Muslims in the United States and widely shared internationally; the Declaration against terrorism and extremism promoted by the Great Imam of al-Azhar, the most authoritative institution in the Sunni world; finally, a declaration emanating from extremist Islamic groups rival to the “Islamic State”. In all the answers there emerges a strong reaction that comes from the very heart of Islam and based on Islamic arguments that in fact delegitimize any claim to the caliphate of the alleged “Islamic State”.