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Australian National Imams Council Reaffirms ISIS Has No Connection to Islam
12-23-2025
Sydney, Australia — The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC), as the highest Islamic and religious authority in Australia, together with its member Imams and religious leaders, has reiterated its unequivocal condemnation of ISIS, describing it as an evil and dangerous terrorist organisation whose actions and ideology stand in complete opposition to the teachings of Islam and the values upheld by Muslims worldwide.
ANIC stated that its position on ISIS has been clear, firm, and consistent since the group’s emergence and has never wavered. The Council emphasised that ISIS does not represent Islam or the Muslim world in any way, and that its ideology is rooted in violence, terror, and the deliberate destruction of human life—principles that are fundamentally incompatible with Islamic teachings, ethics, and scholarship, which emphasise the sanctity of life, justice, and mercy.
The Council highlighted that the Muslim world has suffered disproportionately at the hands of ISIS, with the overwhelming majority of the group’s victims being Muslims. Communities across the Middle East, Africa, and other regions have endured mass killings, forced displacement, and the destruction of places of worship, including mosques.
ANIC reaffirmed that it and its member Imams have been clear, consistent, and vocal in opposing ISIS and its followers. In 2017, ISIS publicly listed senior members of ANIC as targets to be killed, underscoring the group’s hostility toward mainstream Muslim leadership and its campaign of intimidation at the height of its terrorist activity.
The Council, together with Muslim leaders and scholars around the world, firmly rejected the use of the term “Islamic State,” calling on authorities, political leaders, and media organisations to refrain from using this label and to refer to the group only as ISIS or Daesh. ANIC stressed that this terrorist organisation does not deserve any association with Islam in name or description and rejected any attempt to connect ISIS or its members to Islam or to portray its ideology as a distorted version of the Islamic faith.
ANIC noted that all reputable and prominent Islamic institutions, scholars, and Muftis globally have openly, repeatedly, and unequivocally condemned and denounced ISIS and its ideology. These include leading authorities such as Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Muslim World League, the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah in Egypt, Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia, and the European Council for Fatwa and Research.
The Council concluded by stating that there is no legitimacy, credibility, or scholarly support for ISIS within mainstream Islam. ANIC stressed that anyone connected to, supporting, or promoting ISIS ideology must be denounced and held accountable, and that there can be no tolerance for the justification, glorification, or revival of an ideology built on violence and terror.
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