ISIS release 'kill list' of Muslim politicians declared 'apostates'

ISIS has released a "kill list" of Muslim political leaders the group considers apostates, including two senior Conservative ministers.

Warsi has spoken strongly against ISIS in the past, calling the group “evil”.Reuters

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the former chair of the Conservative party and the first Muslim woman in the Cabinet, and Sajid Javid, the business secretary, were named as targets in the latest issue of Dabiq, ISIS' propaganda magazine.

Other politicians named were US Rep Keith Ellison, who was the first Muslim to be elected to the US Congress, and Hilary Clinton's aide Huma Abedin.

The individuals were chosen for being "overt crusaders" who "directly involve themselves in politics and enforce the laws of the kuffar [non-believers]" an article in Dabiq said. It was titled "Kill the imams of the kuffar in the West".

The article encouraged ISIS supporters to "wage jihad by himself with the resources available to him (knives, guns, explosives etc) to kill the crusaders and other disbelievers and apostates... to make an example of them".

It also praised the recent terror attack in Brussels.

"Brussels, the heart of Europe, has been struck," one article said. "The blood of its vitality spilled on the ground, trampled under the feet of the mujahideen.

"Paris was a warning. Brussels was a reminder. What is yet to come will be more devastating and more bitter."

Warsi has spoken strongly against ISIS, calling the group "evil", and in December suggested that mosques in the UK could be designed without minarets to look more "quintessentially British". She also suggested yesterday that Muslims were more progressive than Christians in the UK.

"Attitudes around women's rights and gay rights are changing. But our community in Britain is 50 or 60 years old – we have moved faster than my party, which has been around much longer, or the Church," she said.

Javid, meanwhile, has urged British Muslims to tackle extremism.

Ellison released a statement following the threat, in which he said: "The fact that I'm on Daesh's [ISIS'] bad side means I am fighting for things like justice, tolerance, and a more inclusive world".

"As millions of faithful Muslims flee Daesh's imposed nightmare they call a 'caliphate', Daesh takes the time to threaten Muslim public servants in the West, like myself and my friend Huma Abedin," he said.

"Daesh is a collection of liars, murderers, torturers, and rapists. No Muslim I know recognizes what they preach as Al-Islam."

The national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, was also named as a target by ISIS.

He said: "Our life and death are in the hands of God. I believe this threat is a reflection of the outstanding work CAIR does in opposing the anti-Islamic message and brutal actions of ISIS and other terror groups. The best response to such threats is to continue challenging extremism, whether it is espoused by organizations like ISIS or by Islamophobes who seek to demonize Islam based on that group's brutality."