Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThe notion of who is and isn’t Muslim has also occupied numerous Qaeda theologians, long before the rise of the Islamic State. While the older terrorist group also holds Sufis to be heretics, Al Qaeda’s official branches have been more restrained in its violence. One of the ways the Islamic State has departed from Al Qaeda and its official affiliates has been its willingness to use unbridled violence against Muslims they accuse of straying, including Shias and Sufis. In the article, the Islamic State acknowledged abducting the elderly man, who they say was sentenced to death because of his embrace of polytheism. They also issued a warning to other Sufis living in Egypt, saying they were “mushrikin” and that their “blood is filthy and permissible to shed.”

Source: New York Times November 25, 2017 16:29 UTC