Dar-AlArqam Channel Pushes Classic Jihadist Texts Justifying Mass Killing Of Non-Muslims And Branding Pro-West Muslims As Apostates
Executive Summary
An ISIS-aligned Telegram channel, Dar-AlArqam, recently posted two doctrinal texts in quick succession from the same account (“abu0123”): one short treatise arguing that the blood of all non-covenant disbelievers is “halal” and that killing them is an act of worship, and a longer book-length work by Saudi extremist scholar Nāsir al-Fahd declaring Muslims who assist the United States and its allies to be disbelievers. Posted together and without commentary, the pair form a coherent ideological package aimed at English-speaking supporters: they normalize the killing of non-Muslim civilians anywhere in “Dar al-Kufr” (lands of unbelief) and provide a detailed legal framework to excommunicate and potentially target Muslims who cooperate with Western governments. While both texts are older al-Qaida–era materials being recirculated rather than new ISIS productions, their resurfacing on an ISIS channel reinforces permissive rules of engagement for attacks in the West and hardens takfiri attitudes toward local Muslim “collaborators.”
Analysis
The two documents are mutually reinforcing: “Kafir’s Blood” is a concise, highly accessible justification for killing almost any non-Muslim civilian, while “The Exposition Regarding the Disbelief of the One that Assists the Americans” is a long, heavily footnoted treatise arguing that materially or operationally assisting the U.S. and its allies against “mujahidin” is itself an act of disbelief that expels a person from Islam. Together they define the enemy as both external non-Muslims and internal Muslims deemed to be traitors, and they remove most religious barriers to targeting either group.
“Kafir’s Blood” argues that “din” (often translated as religion) fundamentally means obedience to authority and that God has commanded Muslims to fight until all visible authority belongs to Him alone, not to human legal systems. It cites classical Quranic verses and scholars to claim that only Muslims and “dhimmi” non-Muslims (non-Muslim subjects under a protection tax) enjoy protected blood; all other disbelievers have no sanctity and may be killed “on or off the battlefield,” including businessmen, sports participants, elderly people, and street vendors in non-Muslim countries.
The text insists that shedding the blood of a non-covenant “kafir” (disbeliever) is not sinful but rewarded with Paradise, and that “even the blood of the kafir street vendor selling flowers” is permissible to spill. It stresses that there is “no shar’i requirement” to focus on soldiers or officials, explicitly legitimizing attacks on general populations in the West.
The longer book by Nāsir al-Fahd, translated and distributed by At-Tibyān Publications, frames the post-9/11 U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq as a “Crusader onslaught” and sets out to prove the “kufr” (disbelief) of anyone who assists the Americans militarily, financially, or through intelligence and law-enforcement cooperation. It cites Quran, hadith, medieval scholars, and modern hardline clerics to argue that helping non-Muslim militaries against Muslims is a “nullifier of Islam.”
The book emphasizes “al-wala’ wal-bara’,” meaning loyalty to believers and disavowal of disbelievers, as central to faith, and classifies assistance to U.S. forces as alignment with “taghut” (false, illegitimate authority). It treats working with American or allied militaries, intelligence, or police against jihadists as equivalent to joining the enemy’s side, regardless of whether the helper claims to hate unbelief in his heart.
By posting these works back-to-back, the Dar-AlArqam channel provides both a blunt moral license and a detailed legal treatise for extreme violence. In practical terms, the combination signals to followers that:
Non-Muslim civilian life in Western or non-Muslim-majority countries has almost no religious protection if those civilians lack a formal protection covenant.
Any Muslim who assists Western or “apostate” governments in counterterrorism, extraditions, surveillance, or military operations is at risk of being declared a disbeliever (takfir), which in this ideological framework strips their blood and property of protection.
There is no requirement to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in attacks against “kuffar” (disbelievers) outside of narrow exclusions (e.g., small carve-outs for women and children in some classical opinions).
Several doctrinal points in “Kafir’s Blood” are explicitly aimed at lowering moral inhibitions for attack planning in Western urban environments:
The text lists numerous categories of non-Muslims whose killing it deems permissible: non-combatant merchants, employees, farmers, priests, monks, the elderly, disabled people, and other “non-harbi” civilians, citing historic jurists to claim broad consensus.
It closes by urging Muslims in “Dar al-Kufr” to remember that “killing them is a form of worship to Allah,” and that even casual, everyday targets (e.g., someone buying a sandwich) are legitimate. It explicitly describes “striking terror into the hearts of all disbelievers” as a duty.
The al-Fahd book complements this by focusing on internal enemies: Muslims who side with or materially support the U.S. and allied states. It is particularly important for takfiri radicalization because it treats many forms of cooperation as automatic disbelief, even when claimed to be coerced or politically justified.
The work opens from Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s “Nullifiers of Islam,” highlighting “assisting the mushrikun (polytheists) against Muslims” as a major nullifier, and then builds an extensive case that material, logistical, or operational support for U.S. forces in Muslim lands constitutes such assistance.
It rejects the idea that only loving the disbelievers’ religion would make such cooperation disbelief; instead it states that many apostates fall for worldly interests (salary, position, perceived security), and that this worldly preference itself is enough to render them kuffar when manifested through assisting enemy militaries.
The book’s structure—covering evidence from consensus, scripture, prophetic tradition, companions, legal analogy, history, and modern fatwas—presents this view as mainstream and obligatory, which can reinforce a young reader’s confidence that takfir of “collaborators” is not fringe but “the” correct position.
Although both works are clearly older (the second one explicitly references George W. Bush and early 2000s Afghanistan/Iraq campaigns), their re-emergence on an ISIS-sympathetic channel serves several functions:
It refreshes access to “canonical” takfiri jurisprudence for a new generation that may not read Arabic but can consume English translations.
It helps bridge ideological continuity between al-Qaida-era scholars (like al-Fahd) and contemporary ISIS-style networks, reinforcing the idea that current tactics flow directly from earlier “scholarship.”
It is low-risk, low-effort content: reposting PDFs avoids operational chatter while still contributing to radicalization and self-education among sympathizers.
For security services, the combination of these texts on a single channel, posted within a minute by the same user, is a strong indicator that the channel is trying to move its audience from general ISIS sympathies toward doctrinal commitment to extreme violence and excommunication. Even without explicit operational instructions, the material provides ideological cover for lone-actor or micro-cell attacks on non-Muslim civilians in Western cities and on Muslim “traitors” such as police, interpreters, informants, or local officials tied to Western security partners.
Sources
Kafirs blood
Kufr of those who assist disbelievers
Dar-AlArqam channel
