Emin Poljarević

Theology of Violence-oriented Takfirism as a Political Theory: The Case of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

Research output

Complete citation

Poljarević, Emin. “Theology of Violence-oriented Takfirism as a Political Theory: The Case of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).” In Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements, edited by Muhammad Afzal Upal and Carole M. Cusack, 485–512. Leiden: Brill, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004435544_026.

Status

Published (2021)

Publication type

Peer-reviewed handbook chapter

Overview

This chapter analyses violence-oriented takfīrism as a theological-political formation rather than treating it only as extremist rhetoric or security pathology. Focusing on ISIS, it examines how declarations of unbelief organise claims to sovereignty, authority, exclusion, and legitimate violence. The chapter connects doctrinal boundary-making to a political theory in which the community is purified through coercive classification and rival Muslim authorities are stripped of legitimacy. Its approach links the study of contemporary Salafism to political theology and to the analysis of domination. The central contribution is to show that takfīrism has an internally structured account of political order, however destructive and normatively indefensible, and must therefore be understood through the interaction of theological concepts, institutional ambitions, and practices of violence.

Research question or central concern

How does violence-oriented takfīrism function as a political theory of sovereignty, authority, membership, and exclusion?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

Through theological and political analysis of ISIS, the chapter argues that takfīr is not incidental rhetoric but a constitutive mechanism for authorising rule, violence, and communal purification.

Keywords

Takfīrism; ISIS; political theology; sovereignty; violence; Salafism; exclusion; authority

Links

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