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14. Islam’s Early Terrorists Caused a Three-Way Civil War (Part 2)
The Caliph Ali went ahead with the arbitration, but it turned into a fiasco without settling the dispute or producing a result other than weakening him politically. The Khawarij soured on Ali, whom they now viewed as much of a usurper as his opponent. So they decided to get rid of both rival Caliphs, and hatched an assassination plot to kill them on the same day during Friday prayers. Ali’s assassins succeeded, but those sent after his rival Muawiya only wounded him. Muawiya thus became sole Caliph, thanks to a helping hand from the Khawarij’s botched plot that had killed his rival, but left him alive. The Khawarij challenged Muawiya as illegitimate, because he had gained the Caliphate by force of arms, instead of via election by the Muslim community.
The Khawarij’s democratic and egalitarian principles, commendable as they may have been, were more than counterbalanced by a fierce fanaticism that turned off many. They contended that backsliding or sinning, such as drinking alcohol, fornication, missing the daily prayers, failing to fast on Ramadan, or even idle gossip, rendered the sinner an apostate deserving of death. Accordingly, the Khawarij launched a program of terror against the Caliph’s supporters, as well as those who did not meet their purity standards, viewing them as apostates.