Five points on #ISIS and developments in #Iraq
1. Many objectionable actions have been reported as having been carried out by ISIS in recent weeks, such as forcing Christians and others to flee their villages and starve on mountaintops, summary executions, and killing journalists. If true, these actions are wrong and not condoned Islamically.
2. The reality is, however, that mainstream and online media is not a reliable source on these sorts of reports and many false reports are circulating. It is plain that the media is treating ISIS (as with al-Qaeda, Taliban and many others before) as an enemy force (even though in theory they are meant to only be reporting events) and any impartial person will accept that reports about forces you deem belligerent are not objective.
Thus, it should suffice us to clarify that a particular act x is wrong and unIslamic, without us attacking or condemning a particular act x from particular person or group y. The former is a judgment about an ethical question. The latter is that plus a judgment about a matter of fact.
There’s also many wacky conspiracy theories about ISIS being a creation of the US, Israel, Mossad, CIA, Assad, the Free Masons, the Illuminati and Mr. Squiggle the man on the moon. Please respect your own rationality and stop sharing these. It’s stupid and it’s wrong Islamically.
3. One thing these developments do re-iterate, irrespective of what there reality is, is that ISIS is not a state at all, let alone the Khilafah. This is *one* aspect that shows this.
With all the propaganda against them, with all the backlash Muslims are facing around the world because of actions reported about them, with all the further targeting of Muslims around the world being done on pretext of these actions, ISIS leadership is nowhere to be seen in the propaganda war. Where is the Khilafah? Where is his spokesperson? His media people? Why isn’t he coming out to clarify what is true and what is not?
This is not some simple matter. The blowtorch is being applied to Muslims globally and the person who claims to lead them all is silent? He can’t even come out to deny all that is wrongly being ascribed to them? Or if it’s true to provide the Islamic justification?
It’s a really odd thing when something major is being reported and even those who want to give ISIS a fair hearing want to know the reality they have no means to do so. The best you can do is ask some supporters – who have no official standing with the group – who themselves have to rely on people they know, who themselves may or may not know anything of the incident. There’s the odd twitter account whose authenticity as official is not certain, or the odd video that gives part of the picture but that’s it!
Where is the Khilafah’s version of events? Where is its role in the propaganda war and battle for hearts and mind? Silence is not an option in this. The Prophet (saw) was never silent with the like of this. He would engage, respond, negate, and counter the false narrative of the enemy (mostly by offense, not defensively). He ascribed significant importance to public opinion. Recall, as but one example, that one of the reasons he gave for not killing the hypocrites in Madinah in spite of their constantly undermining him was that, “People would say Muhammad kills his companions.”
It’s now a case of individuals and groups having to do what little they can to counter the ‘war on terror’ narrative and demonisation of Islam. The Khilafah should be leading the way in this!
I know that the response of ISIS supporters to this is, essentially, that it is are unable to do this yet. But that is the point. It is unable to do things that are so basic because it does not have even the basic elements of a state (by today’s standards), whether it be sufficient security that allows the leadership to move around normally and carry out the tasks as any other political leadership today or sufficient infrastructure and technological capability to engage in the propaganda war.
4. Some Muslims are going out of their way to condemn ISIS and in very strong language. Frankly, it is difficult to take these people seriously. Most of them are the same people who never spoke a word against far worse crimes committed by western powers or the regimes in the Muslim word, and if they did once in a while it was like a murmur compared to their roar against ISIS now. They’ve finally found a political roar!
Seriously, how does one come out with descriptions like, “lunatics”, “barbaric”, “bloodthirsty”, “deranged”, “savages”, having not once used anything like for those whose violence and crimes outdo anything ISIS has done by incomparable proportions?
How does one come out with concerted social media commentary, blog posts, opinion pieces, media interviews against ISIS having done nothing comparable to this against the US through a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or through years of brutal oppression by the dictators that rule in the Muslim world?
Do you realise that your hyperbole against ISIS only reinforces the ‘war on terror’ narrative, part of which is the idea that the civilized western savior is rescuing the world from the radical Islamist barbarian?
Please, stop playing for the dominant opinion and stop being played. ISIS is not the issue in Syria or Iraq. There are much bigger issues that have been there long before ISIS and continue today. If you can provide direction on these, please do. If not, do us all a favour and keep silent.
And let me be clear – preemptively tackling the strawmen that will be erected by some – that this is not to say “they're bad as well” or to in anyway justify Muslim wrongs on count of western wrongs. Rather, the issue is consistency and basis.
If your basis is that Islam is against oppression and unjust violence and requires us to speak out against the same, than western states are far worse in this respect than any militant group, Muslim or non. Same applies to the regimes in the Muslim world.
Yet we see no concerted effort (as opposed mere footnote acknowledgment) to confront these parties, nor the same strong language (e.g. referring to Obama as a terrorist or the US govt. as a terrorist entity or to his troops as lunatics or savages).
Not only is western violence worse in magnitude and effect but it is also the provocation that creates the conditions which give rise to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. How does that figure into your “we should condemn both equally” excuse?
If the basis is that these groups claim to be Islamic and are tarnishing the image of Islam, hence we need to confront them and push the correct image of Islam, this applies as much to the regimes in the Muslim world, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, and others. There oppression is worse and they even have the rubber-stamp approval of big muftis and scholars. Where is your concerted effort to counter these regimes save the image of Islam?
5. ISIS is the new al-Qaeda. The pretext, the excuse, by which western states seek further intervention in the Muslim world and in Muslim communities locally, through both hard-power and soft-power measures. We need to do our level best to resist this, to speak out with the truth, with a counter-narrative to their lies. We may not be able to stop them, but we cannot in any way facilitate the path for them, whether by reinforcing the narrative on which the policies rest, or by assisting them in their introduction or implementation.
source:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=725977320801650&id=238728026193251
I still have no idea who's ISIS, who are they? CIA? ??? Allegations being thrown left and right, I'm not even sure if the people defending them or taking a blow at them even know they exist or not and who is their leader. It all seems anonymous and Allah knows best who's playing this game. Here's a great article by Uthman Badar.