An Irish Muslim named Sajid Aslam recently left his family in Ireland and went to join the armies of the Islamic State.  He is far from alone.  Though Ireland is a country of only five million people — and its Muslim population a tiny fraction of that number — it has contributed more fighters to ISIS than the massive nation of India with its vast Islamic population.  Ireland has also contributed seven times as many ISIS fighters per capita as the United States of America.

Recently a religious leader in Ireland raised concerns with the police about the visit of radical preachers from Kuwait. Muslim leaders in the Irish nation proposed that the visiting preachers sign an anti-extremism pledge that they authored.  The terms of the pledge would require these radical preachers to reject al Qaeda and ISIS as well as to praise the tolerance and respect of Irish gays and lesbians.  On the surface, it seems that anyone who would pledge those things would not be too radical.

The problem is that such pledges are completely unreliable. Under the Islamic law principle of taqiyya, it is perfectly fine — and can even be mandatory — to lie when it is useful to the cause of spreading Islam. There is no reason to think that even such a pledge as this would not be given gladly, and falsely, in order to have the chance to spread the dangerous ideology.

According to the media advertising the event, one of the radical preachers held a fatwa session to give legal opinions on questions from the audience.

“He could be asked all type of questions in regards to living as a Muslim in the West,” said Dr. Al Qadari, who proposed the pledge.  “This could range from religious affairs to political affairs such as democracy, engagement with non-Muslims, homosexuality and people will expect and assume the verdicts he will give are binding on them.”

Al Qadri said that both Kuwaiti were preachers of Wahhabism, the sect of Islam that produced both al Qaeda and the Islamic State.  We know what kind of answers such men would give.  Those answers would likely lead to radicalized Muslims who might follow those other Irish Muslims in joining ISIS, or worse, stay to fight at home.