Ibn Taymiyyahs Place among Jihadi Salafists regarding Revolt against a Ruler

Jihadi Salafism is a group which believes in armed struggle to spread the religion. To promote and realize their goals, they seek to remove every hurdle on their way. The biggest hurdle according to them, are the Islamic countries' rulers who, according to them, are unbelievers and heretics. To legitimize their actions, the Takfiris have taken recourse to Ibn Taymiyya's verdicts as the main and only basis to excommunicate Muslim rulers and consider them out of the pale of Islam. Referring to Ibn Taymiyya's fatwa about Tatars, they have made two claims. First, today's rulers are like the Tatar rulers and, therefore, they should be killed. Second, the orders issued by these rulers are like those of the Tatars and they are kafir (infidels) on account of these orders, and they, therefore, deserve to be killed. However, if we look at Ibn Taymiyya's opinion, it seems that the Salafists have wrong understanding of their statements and it is impossible to put today's rulers on equal footing with the Tatar's. In addition, the rulers of Muslim countries seem to lack certain conditions mentioned in the Book, prophetic tradition and sayings of the noble leaders about 'kufr'. They can be described as corrupt rulers at the most. As well, based on what has been mentioned in Sunni sources, it is not permissible to revolt against a ruler, if it entails an evil (mafsada).