A cause of strife

摘要

When Islamic State (is) declared on June 29th that its leader was the new caliph, no one was more perplexed than his supposed flock of 1.6 billion Muslims. All but the most avid jihadists reject the claim outright. In the case of the 126 distinguished scholars and clerics who recently penned a lengthy, 24-point refutation, the dismissal was carefully argued on grounds of Islamic jurisprudence: a caliph can only be chosen by general consensus; anything else would befitna, Arabic for strife or sedition. The yearning for the caliphate, and its propaganda value to is, are understandable. Schoolbooks paint the rule of the first four caliphs or "successors" to Muhammad as a golden age. Arabs wistfully recall the glory of the caliphates of 8th-century Damascus and 9th-century Baghdad. Modern Islamism, with its leitmotif of grievance against the West, has long harped on the fall of the last titular caliph, in 1924, as a deep wound to the faith. Even the doubting signatories of the letter admit that establishing the caliphate is "an obligation upon the ummah" (or Muslim "nation").