Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Islamic State Has Nothing to Do With Islam?
Frontpage ^ | 8/27/2014 | Robert Spencer

Posted on 08/27/2014 3:21:23 AM PDT by markomalley

Whatever they may disagree about, Western leaders are in complete agreement about one thing: the new self-styled caliphate, the Islamic State, has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. It’s a comforting, reassuring vision for Western non-Muslims facing a massive influx of Muslim immigrants and jittery about the prospect of Islamic terrorism, except for just one problem: it’s entirely false.

Barack Obama has made it clear: “ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.” David Cameron intoned: “What we are witnessing is actually a battle between Islam on the one hand and extremists who want to abuse Islam on the other. These extremists, often funded by fanatics living far away from the battlefields, pervert the Islamic faith as a way of justifying their warped and barbaric ideology – and they do so not just in Iraq and Syria but right across the world, from Boko Haram and al-Shabaab to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.”

State Department spokesperson Marie Harf emphasized that Obama meant what he said: “ISIL does not operate in the name of any religion. The president has been very clear about that, and the more we can underscore that, the better.” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond declared: “[ISIL]’s so-called caliphate has no moral legitimacy; it is a regime of torture, arbitrary punishment and murder that goes against the most basic beliefs of Islam.” The British opposition agrees: Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that Islamic State “extremists are beheading people and parading their heads on spikes, subjugating women and girls, killing Muslims, Christians and anyone who gets in their way. This is no liberation movement — only a perverted, oppressive ideology that bears no relation to Islam.”

Cooper’s statement was a bit more specific than most others of its kind, and shows up the weakness of all of them. For every Islamic State atrocity she enumerated, there is Qur’anic sanction:

Beheading people: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks…” (Qur’an 47:4).

Subjugating women and girls: “Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because Allah has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them” (Qur’an 4:34).

Killing Muslims: “They wish that you reject Faith, as they have rejected (Faith), and thus that you all become equal (like one another). So take not Auliya’ (protectors or friends) from them, till they emigrate in the Way of Allah (to Muhammad SAW). But if they turn back (from Islam), take (hold) of them and kill them wherever you find them, and take neither Auliya’ (protectors or friends) nor helpers from them” (Qur’an 4:89).

Killing Christians: “Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29).

Even if the Islamic State is misinterpreting or misunderstanding these verses, it is doing so in a way that accords with their obvious literal meaning. Yet this denial from Western leaders is nothing new. Obama, for his part, excuses and apologizes for Islam every time a jihadist atrocity affects the U.S. in some way. Of course, most would wave away his denial as a political necessity, and ask why it matters anyway — why does it make any difference whether or not what the Islamic State is doing is in accord with Islamic texts and teachings? Among other reasons, because it will help determine how much support the new caliphate will ultimately get from Muslims worldwide, and will serve as an indicator of how much we can expect to see the actions of the Islamic State replicated by other Muslims elsewhere.

The blizzard of articles and statements from Muslims and non-Muslims, including the leaders of the principal nations of the Western world, assuring us that what the Islamic State is doing has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam are designed to reassure non-Muslims in the West that they need not have any concerns about massive rates of Muslim immigration and the Muslims already living among them: “Not to worry, folks, your friend Ahmad down at the office will never start acting like those nuts in the Islamic State.”

One problem with this is that it prevents authorities from calling upon Muslim communities to teach against the doctrines that the Islamic State acts upon, and to work for genuine reform. And so the door remains open to the possibility that the actions of the Islamic State could be repeated in Western countries. Barack Obama and David Cameron would do far better to confront the Islamic State’s Islamic justifications for its actions and call on Muslims in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere to teach against these understandings of Islam that they ostensibly reject.

But they never do that, and apparently have no interest in doing it. Instead, they foster complacency among the people of the U.S. and Britain. For doing so, they may never pay a price, but their people will almost certainly have to pay, and pay dearly.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: isis; islam; islamists; qatar; rop; sharia
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last
To: markomalley

I guess that means 92% of Saudis are “extremists who want to abuse Islam”.


21 posted on 08/27/2014 5:09:03 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Is Obama 100% sure these people are not just bitter clingers, hanging on to their guns and their religion?


22 posted on 08/27/2014 5:32:37 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Ya understand it’s just branding. Like Christian Bale doesn’t have anything necessarily to do with Christianity.


23 posted on 08/27/2014 5:40:31 AM PDT by DManA (in)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Whatever they may disagree about, Western leaders are in complete agreement about one thing: the new self-styled caliphate, the Islamic State, has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam.

And that is why it is winning. It has EVERYTHING to do with islam. It is islam. It is the whole purpose and reason for islam. We lose simply because we refuse to acknowledge who or what the enemy really is.


24 posted on 08/27/2014 5:40:45 AM PDT by SECURE AMERICA (I am an American. Not a Republican or a Democrat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley
All Islam followers are ticking time bombs. You never know when Mohammed's many Koranic blood directives will spring forth in the mind of the follower, be taken seriously, and acted upon. No ‘true’ Muslim dares criticize Islam for to do so renders him or her a heretic, guilty of blasphemy, just one of many violations paid for with blood.
25 posted on 08/27/2014 5:40:58 AM PDT by iontheball
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SMARTY

Don’t forget that Neville Chamberlain, at least, took less than one calendar year from that moment to figure out that he’d been had.


26 posted on 08/27/2014 5:44:33 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

Link to the full-text Free Republic thread.

27 posted on 08/27/2014 5:48:04 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vigilanteman

Do his dying day, “O” will NEVER get it!


28 posted on 08/27/2014 5:49:50 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

ISIS-IS-ISlam.


29 posted on 08/27/2014 5:54:46 AM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley
“ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.”

Sahih Bukhari Hadith Volume 4, Book 52, Number 176: You will fight against the Jews and you will kill them until even a stone would say: Come here, Muslim, there is a Jew (hiding himself behind me); kill him.

30 posted on 08/27/2014 7:04:42 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SMARTY
I think it is less a matter of getting it than it is of mostly sharing their ideology. BO’s sole disagreements with ISIS are methodology and tactics.
31 posted on 08/27/2014 7:08:51 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

This is hogwash! They are following the precepts of the Koran ( is Islam a religion?)


32 posted on 08/27/2014 7:54:57 AM PDT by upcountryhorseman (An old fashioned conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

The Islamic Kingdom ruled by a Caliphate has had its 1290 years as prophesied.

It began in 632 A.D. and ended in 1922 (1290 years later) when the Turkish Ottoman Empire came to an end with the abdication of the Sultan.

In 634 A.D. Caliph Omar who conquered Jerusalem and established the empire began to rule. In 1924 (1290 years later) the caliphate was abolished.

People forget their history and that this Islamic Kingdom reigned far and wide for over a millennium. We see today the kind of brutality and lack of freedom that sort of rule brings. After the Caliphate was abolished almost immediately some movements were started to restore it. Al Qaeda, ISIS and others have direct ties to this movement. The have openly declared war on the Christian west. Make no mistake they want a global Islamic kingdom with Christians nations eliminated.

Don’t associate them with Islam thought right? Let’s compare the beginnings to Christianity. Christ claimed to be from His Father in heaven. Mohammed initially thought his teaching was from Satan. The first generations of Disciples of Christ spread truth and charity at the cost of great suffering. The first generations of the followers of Mohammed were warring almost constantly within a few years of his death. Their religion has been marked by violence from the beginning. You can quote any Koran teaching you want but the fruit of combativeness speaks for itself.


33 posted on 08/27/2014 7:59:29 AM PDT by Prophet2520
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: markomalley

“”State Department spokesperson Marie Harf emphasized that Obama meant what he said: “ISIL does not operate in the name of any religion. The president has been very clear about that, and the more we can underscore that, the better.””

So says the teenybopper at the State Department. I guess this means it has to be absolutely true because the “constitutional professor” in the Oval office said so.

Gads! When do these people start to think for themselves? I know - the answer is never. They wouldn’t be democrats or serving a numbskull if they were capable of thinking!


34 posted on 08/27/2014 9:57:56 AM PDT by Thank You Rush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Thank You Rush

Marie Harf is a prostituted shill for Obama and his enablers including Jarrett and the other hardcore Muslims that form his court but which the public knows little.


35 posted on 08/27/2014 10:04:48 AM PDT by noinfringers2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: noinfringers2

Has marie harf had her clitoris removed as yet?


36 posted on 08/27/2014 4:18:16 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl

Some people say we should stop calling these jerks ISIS and call it The Islamic State. It is the Islamic State.


37 posted on 08/27/2014 6:20:55 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: markomalley; GeronL

Recall that Barack Obama and his on the Left repeatedly claimed that Osama Bin Laden did not represent real Islam, then Barack promptly gave OBL a respectful Islamic funeral so as not to piss off the loyal muslim followers of OBL...


38 posted on 08/27/2014 8:52:32 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (ISIS has started up a slave trade in Iraq. Mission accomplshed, Barack, Mission accomplished.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ImNotLying

If the so-called moderate Muslims are correct that only a tiny minority are radical Islamists, then they have nothing to fear. They outnumber the radicals 10 to 1. If they REALLY opposed the radicals, they could come out en masse with such a show of strength that the radicals would be powerless to stop them.

But that never happened, and it never will. First, the number of Muslims who support Sharia is WAY larger than 10%, more like 30%. These so-called “moderate” Muslims are not moderate. Radicals are running wild all over the world and the “moderates” are totally silent. Where are the moderate imams issuing fatwas against the radicals, saying in no uncertain terms that violence in the name of Allah will send you to hell? It’ll never happen, because they believe the exact opposite.

It’s a combination of assent, for the ones who say they oppose the Islamists but really don’t, and cowardice, for the ones who like you say, fear losing their heads.


39 posted on 08/28/2014 4:22:21 PM PDT by Cymbaline ("Allahu Akbar": Arabic for "Nothing To See Here" - Mark Steyn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Cymbaline
Those who deny that these are muslims deny clauses in the Koran which supports the violent spread of the RELIGION.

Their position is not only denial, it is dangerous.

I'm sure many people said oh that Hitler he is just stretching his legs. Even after Mien Kampf

40 posted on 08/28/2014 4:27:18 PM PDT by morphing libertarian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson