6 Reasons Why ISIS is Not Islam
By: Ani Karapetyan/Contributing Writer
The Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (Syria) that declared itself a caliphate in 2014, has become infamous with its brutal murders in Syria and Iraq in recent years. This movement is associated with videotapes with the execution of American journalists, provoking hatred between Sunni and Shia Muslims. It’s also associated with massacres of Yazidis and terrorist attacks on Western and non-Western countries.
Despite the fact that ISIS presents itself as an organization based on the ideology of pure Islam, the actions of the organization show that it is an umbrella organization that has clear geopolitical interests. In other words, ISIS has a well-designed strategy that covers itself under the name of authentic Islam. Here are 6 reasons why ISIS cannot be called Islam:
Here are 6 reasons why ISIS cannot be called Islam:
1. Most of the recruits of a terrorist organization that calls itself an “Islamic State” do not have a serious knowledge of Islam and Sharia. According to the Associated Press survey, 70% of the ISIS recruits had only a little knowledge of Islam.
2. Islamic military law prohibits the killing of civilians, the use of children in war, which is actively used by ISIS.
3. ISIS members read the Koran selectively, tearing out separate verses from the context, as they are more convenient. For example, they execute enemies without observing the rules of fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence, prescribing first to prove guilt in all the severity of the law, with witnesses, and so on.
4. A striking evidence of their duplicity and deceit is the fact that even in the months which are defined as peaceful and forbidden, that is, “Haram” for waging all kinds of wars and confrontations, ISIS keeps on its brutality. In those months when a true Muslim needs to show mercy even to his enemies, the henchmen of ISIS continue to carry out their excessive violence and cruelty, continue to blow up, kill, mock the honor and conscience of people, and continue to abuse holy feelings of believing Muslims.
5.The strategy of the purposeful provocation of panic, directly among the enemy’s combat orders and among the population has proved its effectiveness in military history among the Chinese, Mongolian, and Hungarian conquerors. This approach is actively used in the military strategy of ISIS. It combines the tactics of carrying out fast military operations, the use of ambushes, simultaneous terrorist attacks, hostage taking, and a sophisticated psychological war based on deception, frightening rumors, and ostentatious atrocities that are designed to cause both horror and admiration with visual and emotional shock. This shock is meant to deprive enemies of any will and even the desire to fight and resist. The tactics of preliminary psychological and propaganda intimidation are designed to lead the enemy into a state of paralysis and stupor.
6. Another striking evidence that ISIS is not Islam is its leadership which consists of secular ex-Baathists soldiers. ISIS intelligence services are called Emni, which means “safety” in Arabic. Emni keeps the internal order of ISIS ruled areas and also organizes external attacks. Emni’s commanders are mostly ex-Baathist soldiers from Saddam Hussein’s regime. These intelligence agents are highly experienced and organized. Emni’s methods of repression are similar to any totalitarian regime’s methods of repression: kidnapping, murders, rape, and tortures. They create a security environment in which even a small mistake or disobedience will cost its citizens their lives, just as it was under Saddam’s and has been under other Middle Eastern secular regimes.
Additionally, the Islamic State and the secular regimes of Iraq and Syria use the same brutal methods of repression and punishment under different coverage. As mentioned before, ISIS calls its intelligence services: Emni, a name coming from Islamic tradition, while the intelligence services of other repressive regimes are called mukhabarat. One calls itself purely Islamic, and the others are called secular, but they still use the same methods of repression and torture.
Moreover, having people from the Baath party in Emni’s ranks is in a sharp contradiction with the ISIS so-called ideology because those people, who were once secular are considered the worst of Muslims; they abandon their religion.
It seems that having highly professional soldiers and management personnel in senior ranks of Emni even from infidels (kuffar in Arabic) is more important than its ideology. Here, we see another example of how strategy takes over ideology, referred as purely Islamic.
One should understand that there are many reasons why they can’t equate ISIS with Islam. More than a billion Muslims in the world can’t be labeled as ISIS, be hated, and sometimes injured based on the ignorant assumption that ISIS is Islam.
