What ISIS Really Wants
No, not the Isis from Downton Abbey who likely expired this week between Lord and Lady Grantham. The ISIS that is making the 7th Century cool to kuffars.
Graeme Woods piece in The Atlantic lays out what makes the group tick, and more importantly, how it fits with all the other groups that make up what we call Islam. It’s a one-stop shop that explains the difference between your friend who is a Muslim (and doesn’t want to behead you) and the devotees of ISIS who do. It reduces the complexity of extremist Islam to non-Muslims, and suggest ways to deal with it. It’s one of the best pieces I’ve read that wasn’t penned by Bernard Lewis. Here’s a brief sample.
Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it. We’ll need to get acquainted with the Islamic State’s intellectual genealogy if we are to react in a way that will not strengthen it, but instead help it self-immolate in its own excessive zeal.
So do yourself a favor and read the entire thing.
Update: Evidently lots of people have read the entire thing. The article has really split liberals into the realistic “these guys are who they say they are” sect against the politically correct “ISIS is not Islamic” group as represented by Obama and his sycophants administration. Asra Nomani, a Muslim, writes in The Daily Beast in defense of Woods, “But we, as Muslims, recognize every word in the Islamic State’s theology from teachings, ideas and interpretations we’ve heard through our approximately 50 years on this earth, from the living room chatter of “couch jihadis,” as one FBI agent describes “wound collectors,” to sermons, Facebook posts and Twitter messages.” Her article is titled “Will It Take The End of the World For Obama To Recognize ISIS As ‘Islamic’?” and argues that we need to view ISIS for what it is: an Islamic death cult. The article itself is worth reading in its entirety too.
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