Sometimes the people who call on Muslim leaders and scholars to condemn the terrorism of Muslim extremists seem to be suggesting that there aren't any downsides to doing so. But the recent death threat made against a Muslim professor at Rhodes College in Memphis is a reminder that, though it may be necessary to speak out against the terroristic campaign being waged by ISIS, the people who do so put themselves at risk.
According to multiple news reports, Yasir Qadhi, an adjunct at Rhodes, drew the attention of ISIS after he criticized the murderous attacks on the staff of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris this year. According to a magazine published by ISIS, there's now a reward on the Memphis man's head.
"There is no doubt that such deeds are apostasy," the threat reads, "that those who publicly call to such deeds in the name of Islam and scholarship are from the du'āt(callers) to apostasy, and that there is great reward awaiting the Muslim in the Hereafter if he kills these apostate imāms..."
Qadhi tells Inside Higher Ed that he is concerned but that he has received many death threats over the years, going back to when right-wing American groups labeled him a radical Muslim.
Qadhi told a Memphis television station that "I was one two clerics that they targeted in their latest magazine, two American clerics, and basically called for my assassination. And they have said this is an act of of worship.....that if somebody kills me, God is going to reward them."
Here's a piece from The Washington Post on the threat against Qadhi: ISIS apparently calling for murder of American professor.
And here's the report from WMC-TV in Memphis: Mid-South Professor Targeted by Isis.