UK imams come together to publish Haqiqah, a magazine to counter the Islamic State propaganda machine

“The likes of (Islamic State), Al-Qaeda and Al Shabaab have, for too long, hijacked the right to inform,” writes Shaukat Warraich, the editor-in-chief of Haqiqah in its second issue, released this month. This is the raison d’être of the magazine, created to counter and “expose the reality behind Islamic State”. [caption id=“attachment_2462170” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Screen grab from Haqiqah website.[/caption] The purpose of the magazine is to focus specifically on educating the Muslim youth about the reality of extremist movements and instead spreading a moderate and peaceful view of Islam. It is being published by a group of British imams and Muslim scholars, The Guardian reports. The magazine features contributions from Muslims scholars across Britain. One of the contributors, Mohamed el-Sharkawy, of al-Azhar College of Islamic Studies, writes, _“Under Daesh (_IS) rule we have seen indiscriminate mass murder (Muslims and non-Muslims), the killing of imams and scholars that exposed them for the irreligious beings they are, the corruption of sacred laws, the destruction of mosques and places of worship, the unjustifiable enslavement of innocent young girls.” Haqiqah, like the Hindi word hakikat means reality or truth. Since the rise of the Islamic State in 2014, the threat of radicalisation from the group has been increasing at an alarming rate. IS extremists have taken to social media to spread their message and to recruit people and share videos of their destruction and executions. To deal with this direct online threat, the website Imams Online started this magazine. BBC reports that, the scholars writing in the magazine are trying to give a counter-narrative to the radical rhetoric of IS and other groups, and provide clear explanations of verses of the Koran that have been used by extremists to urge youngsters from across Europe and the Islamic world to leave their homes to fight in Syria and Iraq. According to emerging reports, there are close to 70,000 pro-IS Twitter accounts, while the group also uses other social media networks such as the open-source site Diaspora, and has its own magazine. The second issue of the magazine called ‘The Reality’ states that “The mass exodus of refugees has exposed ISIS’ false claim of having established a Khilafah for Muslims in the region”. This issue explores the reason why Muslims are fleeing Syria instead of staying back and joining the Islamic State. CNN reported last month that there were 58 known defectors from IS. But that is a tiny number when compared to the people going to join them. According to the The New York Times, over 30,000 foreigners have entered Syria, many with the intention of joining IS. The first issue focused on the IS and its cruel reasoning behind killing, raping and pillaging. Read Haqiqah here. Watch a video from the magazine’s launch in London: