A Feeble Folk to whom No Concern is Accorded: ‘Apocalyptic Responses‘ to ISIS and their Contextualization

0495822 - OÚ 2019 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Ostřanský, Bronislav
A Feeble Folk to whom No Concern is Accorded: ‘Apocalyptic Responses‘ to ISIS and their Contextualization.
Central European Journal for Conteporary Religion. Roč. 2, č. 1 (2018), s. 57-76. ISSN 2533-7955
Institutional support: RVO:68378009
Keywords : apocalypticism * ISIS * millennialism
OECD category: Religious studies

Apocalyptic rhetoric has become a symptomatic expression of the so called Islamic State (hereinafter ISIS). This article provides the reader with a quite different perspective on the apocalyptic visions of ISIS than usual. “A Feeble Folk to whom no Concern is Accorded” (this title is a borrowed quotation from an apocalyptic prophecy recorded by Nuʽaym ibn Hammad in his Kitāb al-Fitan) discusses, above all, how the activities of ISIS are placed into an apocalyptic context by their Muslim opponents. Perhaps not surprisingly that such opposing perceptions can be found mainly within the contributions belonging to those Muslim groups and strands that currently feel mortally threatened by the ISIS inspired terror, namely Shiites, Sufis, liberals, etc. This paper elaborates pivotal Sunni patterns as well as examples of such a fighting against ISIS “in eschatological terms.”
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0292884