It was the morning of 12th of June when I woke up to this horrible news of 50 people being shot in Orlando in a gay nightclub. There were myriads of statuses on my newsfeed on these killings. Being a Muslim, living in the US, anything like this makes us apprehensive that, perhaps, this time again there might be a guy with a Muslim name behind this horrific act. Well, the same thing happened I was afraid of which. Yet again, a person named Omer Siddiqui Mateen was behind this massacre of 50 people. Just a day ago, there were commemorations of the great life of Muhammad Ali, the great boxer who worked all his life for building bridges between the communities. A certain solace was there for us when Muhammad Ali was discussed on TV and on social media. However, this brutal act of violence now was all over the world media. The comforting image of Muhammad Ali`s pluralistic efforts was replaced by the grotesque face of a murderer both belonging to the same religion.

Further revealing of details showed that reality was far graver. This guy Omer called police and took an oath of allegiance to ISIS' head Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi before committing this gruesome massacre. The thing more shocking was that this terrorist was an American citizen; he was born and raised in America. He lived all his life in the US and had never been to Iraq, Syria etc. where this group ISIS operates. How did he start hating homosexual people to such an extent that he can take their lives? How can he commit such a ruthless massacre? What is the inspiration that can take a person to such a level of lunacy?

There is always an indoctrination of certain ideas behind such an act of terror, there is an ideology that supports it but how come this ideology has infiltrated the Muslims who are born and raised in a western countries. What is the gauge for the people in the west to discriminate between the Muslims who are peace loving and those who are extremists!

I didn't know that answer to these conundrums will just be a mere visit to a  local mosque. I went to the local mosque here in the small sub-urban town of the US. What I saw in the mosque was nothing but shocking. I saw the books of ideologues of ISIS sitting in the shelves of the mosque. There is certainly a discreet sequestration of ‘Jihadi ideology’ going on in the US and elsewhere in the world. The likes of Ibn-e-Taimiyah and Abdul Wahab have made their ways in to the societies all over the world. They are being taught in Sunday schools to the young children. They are the fountain heads the terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, Taliban and this new phenomenon of ISIS. The teaching of Ibn-e-Taimiyah play a pivotal role in predisposing a Jihadist Mindset.

Ibn-e-Taimiyah's (1263 -1328) ultra-orthodox teachings primarily consist of establishing a political authority of Islam. The premise of a legitimate political authority is only based on the Quran and Sunnah, that also on his own particular interpretation, which is in absolute contradiction to the modern democratic system of government. The doctrine of Ibn-e-Taimiyah completely shuns the idea of government of people by the people. That is the reason that ISIS or people like Moulana Abdul Aziz in Pakistan are against any form of democracy and call democratic government a satanic government. Moreover, his teachings negate the existence of ‘nation states’ in today's world that is why we see ISIS wanting to expand their government all over the world. Also we see that people indoctrinated with ideology of Ibn-e-Taimiyah protesting in the UK and other western countries for implementation of Sharia Laws.

Ibn-e-Taimiyah also believed that those Muslims who do not subscribe to his version of Islam are non-Muslims and will be executed. He emphasized more on literary aspect of narration rather than reason. This explains why we see that most of the people killed by the terrorist organizations like Boko Haram, Al-Qaida and ISIS are not non-Muslims but Muslims. Ibn-e-Taimiyah's vitriolic ideology was consolidated ultimately by Abdul-Wahab (1703-1792). He, taking inspiration from Ibn-e-Taimiyah, took a role of a purifier of Islam and vowed to purge Islam of what he thought were heresies. He declared war on Sufis, Shias and Greek Philosophies. He also gave inflammatory speeches against celebrating the birthday of Prophet Muhammad and visiting graves. Abdul Wahab floated the idea of takfir, according to that any fellow Muslim if will not believe in the Wahab's interpretation of Islam will be considered non-Muslim. The same ideology of takfir is used by the terrorist groups to kill Muslims who are not following their version of Islam. In 1746 Muhammad Ibne Saud invited Abdul Wahab to forge an alliance based on agreement that will support Abdul Wahab and in turn Wahab will give an Islamic legitimacy to the government of Saud. The alliance allowed the family of Saud to occupy all what is known today Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world that is named after a family. In return, the Saudi government pledged to spread Wahabism all over the world. This is the reason that ultraconservative and ultraorthodox form of Islam i.e. stoning of women, no voting rights to women, beheading of people, minority persecutions, no freedom of speech and monarchal form of government is seen in Saudia Arabia. It should not be a surprise to anyone that all the terrorist organizations present in the world have the same ideologues as Saudis have and are supported by the Saudi Government.

Terrorist organization every now and then issue statements which acknowledge and praise Ibn-e-Taimiyah and Abdul Wahab.

Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf is reported in the Financial Times article to have based his teachings on the works of Ibn Taymiyya, after whom he named his mosque in Maiduguri, Markaz Ibn Taymiyyah (Translates to the Ibn Taymiyyah Centre).

ISIS periodically distribute an English magazine in which they reference IbneTaimiyah and Abdul Wahab.

Whosoever is not willing to follow the path of Ibn-e-Taimiyah is liable to be killed. There are many pieces of this magazine that take Ibn-e-Taimiyah as a foundation for killing people. I am only mentioning few here.

These ideologues of Wahabism are perpetually smeared in to the mainstream Islamic thought of the US and the West because of incessant infiltration of the religious text. Saudi Arabia is the biggest publisher of the books of Abdul Wahab and Ibn-e-Taimiyah. If we want to stop these events of terrorism from happening, then we have to counter this ideology. We have to stop the sinking of this ideology in the jejune minds of our children. ISIS is percolating in to our societies through these ideologues although they are not present here physically.

People in the West need to understand that there are more Muslims being killed by these terrorist organization than there are non-Muslims. They should not paint all Muslims with the same brush rather they should push their governments to stop cuddling and supporting Saudi Government. Islamic world is not a monolithic entity. There are plethora of interpretations that are present with in the Islamic world. We need to stand together to fight against this menace of extremism and resist these extremism agendas together.