Across the entire span of Islamic history, from the earliest generations to the modern era, no movement has inflicted greater internal harm upon Muslims than the Khawarij and those who inherited their ideology. Despite their claims of religious purity and militant righteousness, the historical record exposes a stark and uncomfortable truth: these groups have never been a force of Islamic revival, liberation, or justice. Instead, they have consistently functioned as agents of chaos, bloodshed, and division within Muslim societies.
From their first appearance in early Islamic history to their modern manifestations in organizations such as ISIS, the Khawarij have never succeeded in conquering land from disbelievers, establishing legitimate Islamic governance, or guiding non-Muslim populations toward Islam. At no point did they replace disbelief with faith or oppression with justice. Even during periods when they possessed military strength, numerical advantage, and material resources, their weapons were not directed toward external enemies of Islam. Rather, they were turned inward against Muslims themselves.
This defining pattern did not fade with time; it evolved and intensified. Contemporary terrorist organizations are not anomalies born of modern geopolitics, nor are they legitimate resistance movements. They are the ideological heirs of the early Khawarij, mirroring them in belief, methodology, and outcome. Armed with advanced weaponry, sophisticated propaganda, and organizational capacity, they nonetheless dedicate the overwhelming majority of their violence to Muslim civilians, scholars, institutions, and governments. Their campaigns leave mosques destroyed, cities devastated, and entire Muslim communities traumatized.
Central to their operation is a warped theological framework that revolves around indiscriminate takfir. Through selective readings of sacred texts and rejection of established Islamic scholarship, they strip fellow Muslims of their faith and declare their blood lawful. This doctrinal corruption enables mass killings, torture, and public executions, all carried out in the name of a religion that explicitly sanctifies human life and condemns injustice. In this way, terrorism becomes not a defense of Islam, but a grotesque parody of it.
Equally revealing is the Khawarij’s consistent reluctance to engage disbelievers in any sustained or meaningful manner. History records that they often spared polytheists, Jews, Christians, and others, while reserving their harshest violence for Muslims who rejected their extremism. Any limited attacks against non-Muslims have typically been symbolic, strategically empty, or aligned with external agendas rather than genuine confrontation. Their true battlefield has always been the Muslim world itself.
This behavior was not only documented by historians it was foretold by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with unmistakable clarity. In rigorously authenticated narrations, the Prophet ﷺ warned that a people would emerge who would kill the people of Islam while leaving the idol worshippers unharmed, passing through the religion as an arrow passes through its target. Classical scholars unanimously recognized this prophecy as a clear sign of prophethood, as events unfolded precisely as described.
Renowned authorities such as al-Qurtubi, Ibn Hajar, Ibn Hazm, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Shatibi, and Ibn Taymiyyah all testified through lived history and scholarly analysis that the Khawarij consistently targeted Muslims while avoiding confrontation with disbelievers. Reports even record that the Khawarij felt safer among non-Muslims than among believers, fearing the very community they claimed to represent. They emerged most aggressively during times of division and instability, exploiting turmoil to spread fitnah and entrench their influence through fear.
The reality, therefore, is inescapable. Terrorist organizations operating under Islamic slogans do not represent Islam, defend Muslims, or uphold divine law. They represent a recurring extremist deviation that thrives on ignorance, absolutism, and bloodshed. Their presence fractures societies, weakens Muslim resilience, and serves only to discredit Islam while devastating its adherents.
Terrorism is not resistance. It is not jihad. It is not reform. It is a betrayal of Islam’s ethical foundations and a direct assault on Muslim life, dignity, and unity. The overwhelming consensus of Islamic scholarship stands in clear opposition to these movements, declaring them a threat not only to global security, but to the very fabric of the Muslim Ummah.
Islam is innocent of their crimes. Muslims have been their primary victims. History has exposed them. Scholarship has condemned them. And the prophetic warning against them has been fulfilled with tragic precision.
