of two reasons: either to defend themselves when someone attacked them, or to uproot shirk (idolatry) when its eradication required fighting. The record of their campaigns attests to this, and it has been printed and circulated in more than one book.

Fifth: He claims that whenever they gained control of a village or city they would demolish and ruin its shrines.

I maintain that this is one of their merits, even though he and his ilk list it among their faults. By doing so they are implementing the Messenger of Allah’s directive to ʿAli (may Allah be pleased with him): “Do not leave any elevated grave without leveling it.” What blame attaches to people who remove the trappings of idolatry and act upon the Prophetic Sunnah? But the ignorant and the misguided do not realize this; they regard what is good as evil and what is evil as good, they see the objectionable as acceptable and the acceptable as objectionable. The proofs prohibiting building over graves are abundant, for such structures are a means that leads to polytheism. Shrines must therefore be torn down and the outward symbols of paganism eliminated, no matter how angry Abū Zahrah and those like him become—people who insist on keeping the very shrines that are breeding grounds and nests of idolatry.

Sixth: He says the movement has busied itself with minor issues, and he illustrates this with their prohibition of photography.

The answer begins with this: image-making is not a minor matter; it is one of the grave sins. Authentic hadiths forbid it, warn against it, curse the image-makers, and state that they will be the people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection, without differentiating between photographic images and any other kind. Whoever draws such a distinction must bring proof. The danger in image-making and the rationale for which it was outlawed are present in every kind of picture, photographic or otherwise.