ISIS releases article on US election

The Islamic State's English-language media wing on Saturday released an article about the U.S. presidential election, three days before Americans take to the polls. The seven-page PDF warns American Muslims to not participate in voting for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump and quotes verses from the Quran to demonstrate why democracy is antithetical to Islam.

ISIS's al-Hayat Media Center released the article, called "The Murtadd Vote," ("The Apostate Vote") on social media platforms such as Twitter and Telegram. It is a screed against American politics and democracy, which it refers to as "paganism." One of the main arguments it puts forward is that American Muslims who participate in elections are apostates because they have directly contributed to other Muslims being killed in America's numerous wars. "And after almost thirty years of history proving to the entire world that there is no difference between the American Republican and Democratic parties in their policies against Islam and Muslims, the murtadd imams of the so-called 'Muslim Brotherhood' and its sister sects continue to advocate voting in the pagan festivals of U.S. democracy," the article reads.

Additionally, the piece says that any manmade laws and democratic institutions amount to idolatry (in Arabic, taghut, or its plural, tawaghit) and should therefore be shunned by Muslims. "Accordingly, human legislators, manmade laws, modern constitutions, judges who rule thereby, and rulers who enforce such upon others are all tawaghit whom the Muslim must disassociate from and disbelieve in," it reads. The article also uses this same argument as a justification for violence: "Hence, as it is clear that the voter is a part of the taghut of democracy — 'the power of the people' — and that the voters are directly involved in the decision making process by choosing delegates to represent them and their whims executively, judicially, and legislatively, the blood of Crusader voters is even more deserving of being spilled than the blood of Crusader combatants."

"The Murtadd Vote" ends on a grim note, hoping that November 8 ends in horror for the American public. "May Allah make this year's U.S. presidential election a dreadful calamity like no other to have struck America throughout its pathetic history," it reads.

The post ISIS Releases Article On U.S. Election appeared first on Vocativ.