“Whoever fights under the banner of one who is blind, raging for the sake of tribalism, or calling to tribalism, or supporting tribalism, and is killed in this state will have died upon ignorance. Whoever rebels against my nation, striking the righteous and wicked alike and sparing not even the believers and he does not fulfil the pledge of security, then he has nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with him.”
(Muslim)
Abu Huraira reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that one who practises prejudice has nothing to do with him and that he has nothing to do with such a person. This Prophetic assertion is very stern; for tribalism, racism or any other inhuman treatment based on prejudice is the ideological core of all militant terrorists, regardless of whether they support state terrorism or vigilante terrorism. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ has renounced anyone who fights for tribalistic reasons and eschews the principle of non-combatant immunity in war.
When the connection between tribalism and terrorism is understood, it will not be difficult to see that every violent extremist group, whether white supremacists or others, all share the same basic tribalist ideology; the only difference between them is their terms of expression.
Islam rejects all forms of tribalism, racism, bigotry, and collective punishment. We must not construct a false caricature of other groups in order to justify oppression against them. As Muslims, we must take the lead among humankind in upholding universal justice and natural rights of not only Muslims, but of all human beings.