Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti has condemned Nigeria’s Boko Haram for its kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls and described the group as “set up to smear the image of Islam”.

Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said the movement, which says it wants to establish a pure Islamic state in northern Nigeria, was misguided.

His remarks came as religious leaders in the Muslim world, who rarely comment on militant violence, joined in denouncing Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, for saying Allah had told him to sell off the kidnapped girls as forced brides.

“These groups are not on the right path because Islam is against kidnapping, killing and aggression,” he said. “Marrying kidnapped girls is not permitted.”

Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 200 girls from a secondary school in Chibok village, near the Cameroon border, while they took exams on 14 April. Fifty have since escaped.

On Thursday, Islamic scholars and human rights officials at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation denounced the kidnapping as “a gross misinterpretation of Islam“.

This week, Al-Azhar, the prestigious Cairo-based seat of Sunni learning, also said that the kidnappings had “nothing to do with the tolerant and noble teachings of Islam“.   »»» 
theguardian.com

The leaders and followers of Boko Haram have strayed from the path of Islam and have on numerous occasions committed one the most serious crimes under Islamic law: hirabah (brigandage, banditry, terrorism, rape).

Hibarah is the action of a group or an individual by which property is seized or destroyed and people are killed or kidnapped. The Qur’an describes it as “war against God and his Messenger” and as “spreading mischief in the land (fasad fil ard)”.

The punishment for hibarah is death.

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