We will not allow these people to claim they are religious leaders. They have nothing to do with Islam.
— President Obama speaking about ISIS
I differ with President Obama. ‘ISIS’ stands for “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” does it not?
It does not matter what we call it. Let me repeat: It does not matter what WE call it. They call themselves Islamic. That’s what matters. We’re just giving it labels that are convenient to us, and Obama is not just receiving criticism by me but by the majority of the American people.
ISIS is Islamic fundamentalism in the radical extreme. These people are killers, thieves, bigots and rapists, and they are justifying their deeds by telling themselves and their victims that they are on a mission from God.
They are hijacking the Muslim religion, I grant you that, but it is nonetheless Islam that they are using, and that makes it hard for other Muslims to deal with, I must admit.
It is religion in general that often has a message that makes its subscribers think they are better than everyone else. Christians had their turn for a couple of thousand years now, and until just a few hundred years ago Christians murdered, imprisoned, tortured, raped and plundered in the name of their God. The Salem Witch Trials ended in 1692, only when the Governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even the Nazis professed they were Christians, and that’s not very long ago at all.
What baffles me is that the Islamic message is so strong that it gets teenage girls in North America and Europe to sneak onto airplanes to Syria so they can participate in deeds like beheading innocent victims, mass slaughter of members of other religions, shutting down of schools, destruction of art, and the raping and pillaging of conquered villages. What value systems do these teenage girls have to start with that rape and murder sounds desirable and honorable?
I say it here: Islam is a very dangerous and destructive religion, and we are watching its results on YouTube and TV worldwide.
I have to disagree. A lot of times religion is used as a rationale for evil. Not always though. We have seen in our time here and shortly before us the rise and fall of Nazism which was a nationalistic movement. The civil war in Rwanda is a good example of tribal conflict as the source of violence against an unarmed population. There are gender wars being fought across the globe currently under a variety of cultural, national and religious dogma.
I think what Obama is trying to point out that the majority of Muslim’s would have nothing to do with the rationale ISIS uses to perpetrate their crimes against humanity. Tarring this religion allows people to engage in all sorts of irrelevant prejudices against people grouped in with a small minority of the evil members that are a part of their organization. In the same way that all other human organizations contain small minorities of evil doers. The focus should be limited to those who commit evil or support those who commit evil. What groups they are associated with is irrelevant.
Well, I do agree with all your points – however, would ISIS be able to recruit Western schoolchildren by telling them they were going to kill, subjugate and pillage? No, they can recruit because they are doing it in the name of God – God is on their side. A great book about this subject is The end of Faith by Sam Harris: http://norberthaupt.com/2009/05/25/the-end-of-faith-%e2%80%93-by-sam-harris/