Letter to Baghdadi
Letter to Baghdadi is an open letter to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria published in 2014 as a theological refutation of the practices and ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It is signed by numerous Muslim theologians, lawmakers and community leaders from Egypt, the United States, Pakistan, Nigeria, and others. Overview. The letter includes a technical point-by-point refutation of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) actions and ideology based on the Qur'an and other classical texts, using a style that is  unfamiliar to liberal or even uninformed Muslims. Background. In September 2014, the letter, initially signed by 122 Muslim scholars from around the world and was presented at Washington, D.C. by Nihad Awad of the Council on American Islamic Relations. Stating that the purpose of the letter was not to warn Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi but to dissuade potential radicals from joining the ranks Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, he said:"You have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder". "This is a great wrong and an offense to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world ." Signatories. Principal signatories include: Other signatories include Shabir Ally, televangelist and founder of Imam of Islamic Information and Dawah Centre International, Toronto, Canada and Sheila Musaji editor of The American Muslim. Reception. Huffington Post said that the open letter is "meticulously blasting its (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) ideology." The MuslimMatters.org website endorsed the letter but questions the inclusion of Ali Gomaa, who supported the August 2013 Rabaa massacre and Ed Husain, proponent of the Iraq War and an adviser to Tony Blair's controversial Faith Foundation as signatories. Beyond that, the Open Letter has deficits on a systematic , juridical and moral level. A main deficit is that the letter does not explain the difference between legitimate and illegitimate acts of political violence. It does not systematically refer to terms like "violence" or "terrorism". The explanation that Muslims are allowed "to fight those who fight them" and that jihad "is not permissible without the right cause, the right purpose and without the right rules of conduct" is not sufficient in this regard. The purpose of the letter is to state that Islam is "completely innocent" of the acts of ISIS and "prohibits them". Although the letter calls the crimes  of ISIS "heinous" and the perpetrators "war criminals", it does not state which institutions should hold ISIS members accountable or how the criminals should be punished. Instead, it merely calls on the leader and his followers to "reconsider all your actions; desist from them; repent them; cease harming others and return to the religion of mercy."