Fatwas killing Christians during Christmas

Amr Abdel Moneim

Terrorists celebrate the Christmas and New Year holidays with bloodshed and killing innocent lives. Hours before the end of 2018, their despicable attack in the Mariotia area of Egypt’s Giza governorate resulted in the death of four people – an Egyptian and three Vietnamese tourists – and wounding 12 others.

Terrorist organizations’ record in Europe is also full of run-over and stabbing operations, occurring near Christmas and other crowded events. In July 2016, a terrorist belonging to ISIS used a large truck to run over crowds gathered to celebrate France’s Bastille Day, killing 86 people and injuring dozens before being shot himself. In December of the same year, Berlin witnessed a Christmas market being targeted by an attacker driving a stolen truck, killing 12 people and wounding more than 50 others.

With the celebration of Christmas every year, the call for the bloodshed of innocent people is renewed by the release of a group of fatwas prohibiting its celebration and any of its manifestations. Most of the fatwas of terrorist organizations – including the Brotherhood, jihadist salafists, al-Qaeda, ISIS, or others – refer to the fatwas of Ibn Taymiyyah.

ISIS’s fatwas

There was a significant decline this year in the fatwas given out by ISIS related to celebrating Christmas, due to the successive losses suffered by the terrorist organization in Iraq and Syria since the beginning of this year, especially after the killing of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. ISIS instead republished old fatwas on Telegram establishing an extremist ideology toward Christians, at the top of which is a fatwa by Ibn Taymiyyah regarding the impermissibility for Muslims to imitate Christians in anything related to their festivals.

Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta observed in 2019 there are some global fatwas that incite the killing and targeting of Christians in Western countries, with a rate of 30% of the total fatwas issued by ISIS.

Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Christmas fatwas

As for the Christmas fatwas from Hizb ut-Tahrir – founded by the Jordanian Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani – the rate was only 4%, according to the Global Index for Issuing Fatwas, which also addressed the party’s supreme goal, which is “establishing an Islamic caliphate.”

On the party’s website, there was nothing new regarding Christmas from the party’s leader, Ata Abu Rashta, instead using the old fatwas regarding the prohibition of everything related to this occasion. The party also republished a fatwa by Abu Nizar al-Shami, one of the party’s leaders in the West, which included a call to boycott and prohibit the celebration of Christmas.

Characteristics of ISIS operations expected over Christmas

While ISIS continues to face tremendous pressure in Syria and Iraq, it continues at the same time to carry out operations in its other various states on varying levels of strength and lethality.

The operations of the West Africa State in Nigeria and Khorasan Province operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been particularly prominent, and there are two additional states that have emerged in terms of scale of operations this year in Somalia.

As for the rest of ISIS terrorist states around the world, they have continued their “usual” offensive operations against its primary targets in various states: the local army and security forces and al-Qaeda elements. Assassinations have emerged between ISIS and al-Qaeda cells in Yemen and Somalia, as well as military confrontations between ISIS and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It is likely that operations targeting Christmas this year in the West will witness a significant decline compared to last year, at least in relation to ISIS, due to the severe confusion that the organization has witnessed this year. But at the same time, there will be a possibility that al-Qaeda elements may carry out operations in some unexpected areas as a way to prove its existence and restore confidence in its new militants.