Religion and violence

The big story that Daesh tells in Dar-al-Islam is in line with other big stories which rely on Islamic eschatology: it is a vehicle for describing an apocalyptic conflict which opposes a faction of the Muslim world, possessor of the truth, against the apostates of the rest of the world. Dar-al-Islam clearly identifies the current period as “troubles” (fitan), as a prelude to the End of Days. The conditions for this End of Days are brought together progressively: the displacement of the epicentre of the Muslim world from Mecca to the land of Sham^[1] , to deliver Jerusalem, the new Mecca where, at the End of Days, a kingdom will be established ruled by the Mahdi^[2] or the Christ; the Nations said to be non-Muslim who covet the “Muslim lands”; the “ignorant'' who are in power, ( the 'unenlightened' who are shown as such by their perversity and their corruption), not to mention the role of the Dajjal^[3] and the Jews. Another of these portents is “the increase in conquests and the capture of slaves from the lands of unbelief”.

Thus Daesh's propaganda aims to systematically establish correspondence between the Qu'ranic prophesies and the places and the signs that exist now. It harks back to the religious codes with which every Muslim believer should already be conversant; in these it recognises the portents of the End of Days evoked in the Qu'ranic discourse and that of other fundamental texts in the Islamic corpus. The end of history is taking shape. Introducing the fourth issue of the review, the writer points out that “events are happening and the progress towards the great battles of the End of Days is proceeding apace, the Qu'ran is being applied before out eyes and the stories of the Prophets, the companions and the pious are repeating themselves”; the land of Sham is “the refuge of believers at the time of the great battles of the End of Times and the emergence of the Dajjal.”

The prophecies are being fulfilled, and the creation of the Caliphate is the clearest sign of this. The re-establishment of the post-prophetic state signals the beginning of a new era. There are numerous references to Armageddon^[4] : the hour approaches of the al-Malhamah al-Koubra (“the greatest battle before the hour”), which must take place in Dabiq – from which the name of the English version of the review is derived. “Victory will be won after the hard battle in Dabiq” - which is known to be a reference to the town of Dabiq in north east Syria which is, according to a hadith on the apocalypse, the place where the “armies of Islam” will confront the “forces of the infidel”.

Thus, relying on many hadiths, war is justified by the necessity to accelerate the coming of the End of Times. “At the End of Times those who take up the sword to fight the enemies of Allah and those who give allegiance to the Muslim Caliphate shall be spared from the troubles.” The hadiths which preach the words of the Prophet which put jihad at the heart of the spirit and mission of prophecy are mobilised. The return of the Caliphate is “the end of the domination of the Jews, the crusaders and their allies”. The conquest of Rome, often evoked, relates to a hadith according to which the seizure of Rome would follow that of Constantinople and hasten the “End of Days”.

We have now, therefore, entered into a momentum: “where the Muslim community would reach the summit of their humiliation” writes Dar-al-Islam. By the creation of an “Islamic state”, the Caliphate, the concept of offensive jihad comes into play, that is, expansion into the countries considered non-Muslim: “A state where the banner flies from West Africa as far as Khorasan, passing through Libya, Algeria, Sinai, Iraq, Sham, Yemen.....why not see in this the fulfilment of the prophesies?” The major leitmotiv of the review is to invite Muslims to emigrate (Hijra) to the Islamic State to separate themselves physically from the 'unbelievers'; to remain amongst them, even for a Muslim who completes his obligations, foments 'sin', once the Caliphate has been reconstituted. This is one of the five elements of methodology to “establish religion” which Dar-al-Islam identifies, that is: the tawhid^[6] ; the reassembly of Muslims into one group, one community; to listen and obey; the hijra and jihad in the “path of Allah”.

One can see that prophetism is a language; it echoes the discourse of “Muslim Revelation” and is at the same time a fragment of revelation. This discourse serves to eliminate the distance between the Prophet of Islam and man (who is asked to imitate him literally), as it does between texts and the present. This relationship is established here and now, in history, in a temporality, a story where the critical moment is written or rewritten: the Apocalypse is not a discourse, the prophecy is being accomplished. This realisation is often illustrated by reference to three armies – an army in Sham, an army in Yemen, and an army in Iraq. For the discourse of Dar-al-Islam is constantly making analogies, explicit or implicit, between the prophesies and the real world, putting into relief the historical and in particular the geopolitical contingencies. The “prophecies” are being accomplished here (in the Middle East) and now. Finally, one of the coins struck by the Islamic State, that of five dirhams, represents the white minaret of Damascus and alludes to the hadith related in the Sahih Muslim^[7] (no. 2937), clearly referring to the trigger moment, that is, the engagement of the final combat.