I’ve been hearing a not if noise of late from America’s lunatic fringe, aka the Republican Party that we should be burning the Koran, forbidding the construction of mosques, expelling Muslims from the armed services, etc., because the conflict against ISIS is a conflict against Islam, So let us ask, “Is ISIS Islamic?” The following author says no.
Conservatives reacted harshly to President Obama’s claim on Wednesday night that the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) “is not Islamic,” accusing the commander-in-chief of naiveté and ignorance. “What kindergartner briefs the President on terrorism?” Ron Christie, a GOP strategist tweeted. “ISIS says it’s Islamic, lots of people say it’s Islamic, only the president won’t,” George Will told Fox News shortly after the speech.
But the full context of Obama’s remark points to an important distinction between Islam and the extremist ideology that’s sweeping parts of Iraq and Syria. “No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim,” Obama said. “ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.”
Indeed, even from the viewpoint of a casual observer, ISIS is an abomination to Islam. Explosions tend to capture the media’s attention more than peaceful coexistence, and a minuscule minority of extremist groups claiming to be Islamic have exploited this fact as a way to reinvent Islam as a “violent” religion. But just because you shout God’s name while committing murder doesn’t make your actions righteous. Islam, as millions of Muslims can attest, is a peaceful religion that calls on its followers to choose community over conflict, or, as it says in Surah al-Hujurat of the Qur’an (49:13): “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise [each other]).”
But ISIS clearly has little regard for this or other fundamental tenets of Islam… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
I fully agree. ISIS has nothing in common with authentic Islam. Their behavior is the opposite of Islam’s most basic tenants. If short, they are pseudo-Muslims. Then, to whom can we righty compare them?
Pseudo-Muslims are Dominionist. They believe that a theocracy should rule over the smallest details of people’s personal lives. In that way, they are just like Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians. Pseudo-Muslims have formed violent militias. In that way they are just like Republican Supply-side pseudo Christians. Note that the Bundy militia shares the above graphic with ISIS. It’s hard to tell them apart. Pseudo-Muslims execute people they consider unclean. In that way they are just like Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, who have called for the death penalty for gays, and US Republican Senators and Congressmen actually helped Ugandan pseudo-Christians draft a law to execute gays. Thank God it failed!
A pattern is emerging here. Religion is not the problem. Authentic Muslims and authentic Christians get along just fine. The problems come, when extremists with a political agenda hijack a religion to impose authority over others, usually through violently enforced piety codes.
Be warned. There is one major difference between pseudo-Muslims and pseudo-Christians. The latter are here and have the support of the Republican Party.
13 Responses to “Is ISIS Islamic?”
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You could go to any city, town, bedroom community in the United States and pick any block and go up and down it and you would find proof that because a person says he or she is a Christian doesn't make it so. You can find whole churches that claim to be Christian which any sane person could recognize as un-Christian, even anti-Christian. Westboro Baptist comes to mind. Yet because ISIL has the gall to use the word "Islam," that makes it Islamic? Hello?
That is exactly my point: 🙂
I just wish we could send all the "pseudo" groups to a pseudo planet and let them fight to dominate each other.
What a wonderful world ours would be then.
What a wonderful idea! Lets call the planet YourAnus! 😈
There is a programme on the BBC 24 hour News channel for half an hour each week called HARDtalk where a BBC journalist chairs a discussion with four experienced (and renowned) international journalists discussing the facts and manouvering behind the headlines.
Today part of the discussion touched on IS and one of the journalists had been to the Middle East recently doing some research on these thugs – and he says that a human rights group with a good reputation in Syria estimates that there are (I think) 45,000 of them in Syria, and there are about 30,000 in Iraq – a total of 75,000 heavily armed extremists.
He also said that people are moving from both military forces and extreme organisations to join IS, both as a result of being ignored and feeling they didn't have a voice in their countries, but also as a matter of revenge. He then said that IS got many more members as a result of the American bombing – apparently before there were many rumours about IS – rumours about who was behind it, saying that really the Americans/Israelis/whoever were behind it – but once the bombing started they knew that it had to be anti-American as they were bombing it, so that caused a rush of extremists to join IS.
I do hope that the estimation of 75,000 is wrong. Apparently the CIA had originally estimated 10,000 but had recently revised their estimate upwards to 30,000. I have tried to look at the programme again on BBC iPlayer – but that episode of the programme hasn't been uploaded yet.
I do agree TC – these are the Far Right subverting Islam just as the Far Right subvert Christianity for their own ends – real Christians get on with real Muslims and they all get on with other decent people.
Oh yes, I've just remembered – I wondered over the past few weeks how so much armaments fell into the hands of the extremists – apparently a few Generals went over to them too – treachery, I'd call it!
A lot of the equipment belongd to the Iraqi troops thazt cut and ran, because they had no faith in the Maliki Regime that Republicans supported.
Blush – having a senior moment – got the name of the programme wrong – Dateline London….
Just because the word "Islamic" is included in their title doesn't make them Islam. Just think of the many organizations that include the word "Christian" in their titles. Words, that's all they are.
Absolutely right!
No matter what the President says or does he will be criticized by the right. The little I know about the Koran shows that it does not condone the behavior of ISIL. Pseudo religionists exist in every faith. I have been appalled at comments from people I know, who attend church every Sunday and let you know they are Christians in every conversation, regarding our president, and the "Libruls". I would rather not have know this about a few of them. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian.
Ithink Dave C. has a good idea!
And there are even Republican Supply-side pseudo-Atheists who zare every bit as talibangical as any pseudo-Christian or pseudo-Muslim.
I'm really late to this party. I must say though that my Muslim friends and acquaintances are nothing like ISIL. They read the Qu'ran, pray, go to the mosque, and they participate in everyday Canadian life like millions of other people. My physiotherapist is Shia Muslim from Iran and a wonderful fellow. Through him, I have met more and each one is a caring individual involved in the community.
On the other hand, I know many so called Christians for which I can't say the same thing. Extremists of any stripe, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, you name it, belong together so that they can fight it out as they will and leave the rest of us alone.
I found this article on Daily Kos today about where an individual's religious rights stop. Seems the extremists of all stripes should read and take this to heart, but sadly, they won't. Within the article is a link to a video about a gay teen coming out to his "Christian" family. If anyone thought this was true Christianity, there would be no Christians at all except the haters. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/29/1325611/-This-is-where-your-religious-rights-should-end