Sheikh Khaled Al-Mulla: "The Times of Slavery Are Over"

Sunni Iraqi Cleric Sheikh Khaled Al-Mulla
Head of the Iraqi Scholars Association

According to Memri Clip No. 5571 (July 1, 2016), a "Leading Sunni Iraqi Cleric Khaled Al-Mulla Criticizes ISIS Practices," but acknowledges the difficulties due to controversial texts that seem to allow what ISIS does:

Khaled Al-Mulla: "Why do we always blame others for our problems? One says 'America,' another says 'Iran,' yet another says 'Zionist plan,' and so on . . . We constantly hear it in the media. But who are the ones carrying out these [so-called foreign] agendas? It is unacceptable to blame others for our problems. The pawns on the ground are us. We are killing one another ourselves" . . . .

Program Host: "How do you view the taking of Yazidi women as slave girls by ISIS? Are there religious texts that permit this action? Some people who wish to aggravate the situation say that what ISIS brought with them to Mosul is the same as what the Prophet Muhammad brought with him to the places that he conquered, liberated, and declared as the Islamic state."

Khaled Al-Mulla: "This issue is one of the most complicated issues. Why is that? First of all, because not all the things that happened back then can be implemented in our days. Secondly, ISIS has 'hijacked' the controversial texts. Today, we cannot take a Yazidi woman, a Christian woman, or any other woman belonging to another religion . . . The shari'a does not allow us to capture women as [slave girls]. The times of taking captives, the times of slavery, are over."

Host: "But there are religious texts that permit all these things."

Khaled Al-Mulla: "That's correct. It exists in the texts of jurisprudence. Therefore, the biggest mistake of the religious institution is not being able to get rid of these texts. The religious institution does not have the courage to say, at the very least, that these texts are unsuitable for the world today.

At last, some Muslim experts are starting to acknowledge these problematic texts and challenge these very sources that motivate such barbaric conduct among Islamists. This, I think, is one of the ways forward.

More of this please!