The religious justifications used by terrorist groups to threaten political stability, in light of Maqasid al-Shari'ah: The claim of implementing Sharia rulings as a model

Abstract

Religious terrorist movements in the Arab and Islamic world have relied on a set of justifications to justify violence under the pretext of implementing Sharia law. As the objective and ultimate aim of religious work, and to achieve this aim, those terrorist currents have resorted to the option of confrontation to eliminate the existing political systems, resulting in a state of political instability. Their actions have wasted the five objectives of religion, jeopardizing the interests of people in this world and the hereafter. Given that resorting to violence or force is a highly sensitive matter, the law has imposed numerous restrictions and prohibitions to ensure stability and the safety of society, and to avert any internal or external discord or conflict. Thus, the use of force is restricted to the imams or the existing authority, which raises the study's problem of demonstrating the validity of the justifications relied upon by Islamic terrorist movements to legitimize their acts of terrorism, which have contributed to threatening peace and destabilizing political stability, under the guise of applying Sharia provisions? To address the research problem, the study employed an analytical and comparative approach. The researcher assumes that extremist religious currents lack any real legitimate justification that would warrant their resort to violence and the spreading of political instability under the pretext of implementing Islamic law. The significance of the study lies in its uncovering of the backgrounds and theoretical foundations that have been used to justify terrorist acts, and in demonstrating how this approach contradicts the objectives of Sharia. The application of Sharia laws cannot occur by bypassing their essence. The study reached one of its key objectives, which is the lack of any legitimate justifications for extremist currents to resort to violence under the pretext of implementing Sharia provisions.