BAGHDAD – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, emerged from the shadows to lead Friday prayers at Mosul’s Great Mosque this week, the first time the notoriously secretive jihadi has made such a public appearance.
Baghdadi in his address ordered all Muslims to obey him and his video was released Saturday on social media.
The recording called him “Caliph Ibrahim, Ameer-al-Momineen in the Islamic State, may God protect him.”
“I am the wali (leader) who presides over you, though I am not the best of you, so if you see that I am right, assist me,” he said, wearing a black turban and robe.
“If you see that I am wrong, advise me and put me on the right track, and obey me as long as I obey God in you.”
God gave your mujahedeen brothers victory after long years of jihad and patience… so they declared the caliphate and placed the caliph in charge,” he said.
“This is a duty on Muslims that has been lost for centuries.”
The video is the first ever official appearance by Baghdadi, according to Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert on Islamist movements, though the jihadist leader may have appeared in a 2008 video under a different name.
On Saturday, leading Sunni Muslim scholar Yusef al-Qaradawi denounced the Islamic State’s declaration of a caliphate, saying that it was in violation of sharia law.
Mr al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based scholar who is regarded as a spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in his native Egypt, said in a statement that the declaration had “dangerous consequences” for Iraqi Sunnis and the conflict in Syria.
“We look forward to the coming, as soon as possible, of the caliphate,” he said, referring to the form of pan-Muslim government last seen under the Ottoman Empire.
“But the declaration issued by the Islamic State is void under sharia and has dangerous consequences for the Sunnis in Iraq and for the revolt in Syria,” he added.
He said the declaration, and the nomination of al-Baghdadi as caliph, by a group “known for its atrocities and radical views” fail to meet strict conditions dictated by sharia law.
The title of caliph, he said, can “only be given by the entire Muslim nation”, not by a single group.
Since last Sunday, other leading Muslim figures have queued up to denounce the declaration by the Islamic State, which was previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis).
Al-Azhar, the most senior authority of Sunni Islam, “believes that all those who are today speaking of an Islamic State are terrorists,” his representative, Sheikh Abbas Shuman, told AFP earlier this week.
“The Islamic caliphate can’t be restored by force. Occupying a country and killing half of its population… this is not an Islamic state, this is terrorism,” he said.
Rebels in Syria, who have turned on the jihadists that hijacked the uprising against Bashar al-Assad and appalled many by their brutality, have branded the caliphate announcement as “null and void”.
Jordanian Al-Qaeda cleric Issam Barqawi, known as Abu Mohammed al-Maqdessi, also denounced it, warning it will only lead to disunity and more violence.
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