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“What ISIS Really Wants” [Darleen Click]

Here’s Obama, yet again, declaring ISIS and Al Qaeda as “No True Muslim”

First, we have to confront squarely and honestly the twisted ideologies that these terrorist groups use to incite people to violence. Leading up to this summit, there’s been a fair amount of debate in the press and among pundits about the words we use to describe and frame this challenge. So I want to be very clear about how I see it.

Al Qaeda and ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders — holy warriors in defense of Islam. That’s why ISIL presumes to declare itself the “Islamic State.” And they propagate the notion that America — and the West, generally — is at war with Islam. That’s how they recruit. That’s how they try to radicalize young people. We must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders — they’re terrorists.

The rest of Obama’s execrable remarks are full of Islamophilia, “the poor dears just need JOBS” and we owe them.

This isn’t mere ignorance on Obama’s part, but malfeasance of the first degree.

The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, “the Prophetic methodology,” which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail. 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. […]

Following takfiri doctrine, the Islamic State is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people. The lack of objective reporting from its territory makes the true extent of the slaughter unknowable, but social-media posts from the region suggest that individual executions happen more or less continually, and mass executions every few weeks. Muslim “apostates” are the most common victims. Exempted from automatic execution, it appears, are Christians who do not resist their new government. Baghdadi permits them to live, as long as they pay a special tax, known as the jizya, and acknowledge their subjugation. The Koranic authority for this practice is not in dispute.

The article is long, but excellent. Read the whole thing.

32 Replies to ““What ISIS Really Wants” [Darleen Click]”

  1. serr8d says:

    Very nice post on moral relativism (not so far off-topic, if you consider the direction we’re heading)…

    I believe the formation of a liberty movement code, a kind of warrior’s code, is absolutely vital to our future. Without a new kind of oath, an oath not only to the Constitution but to our own internal values, the temptation to use our darker natures against the enemy during greater trials of the soul may be too much to bear. While conscience is an inborn gift, it sometimes requires a more outward affirmation in order to remain strong. Here are some elements I believe should make up the foundation of our code.

    Defense Of The Innocent

  2. happyfeet says:

    islamic terrorism is eating failmerica’s lunch like tasty plate of enchiladas suizas

    obama’s weak but they are strong

  3. sdferr says:

    Al Qaeda and ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders — holy warriors in defense of Islam.

    Yes. Exactly like the Islamic Republic of Iran, with which you are allied ClownDisaster, and against which those Sunni salafists contend and struggle for supremacy (funny thing about Islam and supremacy, ain’t it?) in the Muslim Middle East. For what is velayat-e faqih, the Khomeinist principle, but an Islamic doctrine of rule, eh? And that, from a nation which is the leading terror purveyor in the world.

  4. geoffb says:

    About those “True Muslims“…

    Danish Muslims To Offer Prayers For Jihadist Killer Every Friday.

  5. geoffb says:

    Obama purports to opine on the true meaning of Islam, as if he has the authority to judge religious orthodoxy and identify heretics within Islam. Indeed, the NYT finally gets to this material:

    “Leading up to this summit, there’s been a fair amount of debate in the press and among pundits about the words we use to describe and frame this challenge, so I want to be very clear about how I see it,” the president said [at an “extremism conference” on Wednesday]. “Al Qaeda and ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam… [But] we must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie…. [But they] are not religious leaders — they’re terrorists.”

    When and why do we doubt the sincerity of other people’s declarations of religious belief? Obama says the claims of religious beliefs and motivations are “a lie.” To my ear, the statement that it’s a “lie” is itself a lie, unless we interpret Obama to be saying that Al Qaeda and ISIS subscribe to an untrue version of Islam.

    […]

    There are 2 possibilities here: 1. Obama is choosing to say something that is not true — that al Qaeda and ISIL fighters don’t really believe the religious beliefs they continually profess and act upon, or 2. Obama is making himself an arbiter of the true meaning of Islam — that al Qaeda and ISIS profess beliefs about Islam that are not what Islam really is.

  6. McGehee says:

    What ISIS really wants is to meet a man who knows who he is, is comfortable with it, etc. — and behead him.

  7. dicentra says:

    That Atlantic article points out that the primary difference between al Qaeda and ISIS is that the former consist of political terrorists whereas the latter is a STATE, the caliphate, which is a conquering entity rather than a loose band of guerillas who want to coerce states into doing their will, piecemeal.

    The ending of the Atlantic article is where the guy tries to recover his left-wing bonafides: “Oh, they don’t have designs on the Americas,” “they’re too violent to remain cohesive,” “they’re not as scary as they seem.”

    They’ll definitely kill you last, dood.

    One more thing: we all get that Obama’s insistence on saying “ISIS is not Muslim” is a tactic rather than a statement of belief, but to what end, precisely?

    Is his trying to save the face of his MB buddies?

    Is he trying to gaslight us, and if so, to what end?

    Is he trying to prevent “backlash” against American Muslims? Doubtful, because even he knows there’s no backlash (fretting about it is a tactic as well, remember?).

    Is he trying to deflect pressure to go to war? (No, because you don’t need to claim we’re at war with Islam to fight the caliphate.)

    Usually, the purpose of a leftist’s lies are pretty transparent, but this one has me confused: what is the purpose of this lie at this time?

  8. I’m more worried about Germany invading Greece.

    I only kid a little.

    Imagine: Greece takes Germany’s decision today on the chin and leaves the Eu. Greece still needs a babydaddy, so they look to Putin, who needs some kind of currency, and a fulcrum for pressure on western Europe. If Germany and the creditors push on Greece for repayment, Putin gets to shut off the gas. Greece, backed by Putin, notices Turkey is distracted by the increasingly better-armed Kurds in the East and decides to reclaim Cyprus for the Greek Cypriots. With a base in Georgia, the Russians will keep the Turks from invading Northern Greece, but the Kosavars will start blowing shit up everywhere and re-kindling the Balkan bullshit of the 90’s. That brings Macedonia and Albania firmly into the Greek/Russian camp. Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary go with the Greeks/Russians (for the Gas) Bosnia, Croatia, and Montenegro try and stay neutral. Meanwhile the Turkish gov’t falls and a new Islamist/Nationalist (yes, it can get worse) gov’t takes over and leaves NATO. ISIS, emboldened, starts terror attacks on Italy and US bases in the Med. from Libya. With Russia keeping a Northern lid on Turkish adventures, the newly islamist Turks finance terror ops deeper in Western Europe, eventually on the big US bases in Germany. The US, over stressed with troop commitment in Africa, starts pulling out of Germany. Germany has to rearm to levels not seen since WWII, Turkey and ISIS crush the Kurds and Turkey finally hits Greece back across the border on the N side of the Agean. Th UN finally steps in, drops peacekeepers (now mostly German Troops) in the area. With a rearmed Germany fracking up a storm and supporting Ukraine politically and financially, and with his new treaties and contracts in place with Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria (not to mention pressure on his southern border from expansionist Isamists, Putin stops supporting the Greeks except nominally and the Greek nationalists attack the German peacekeepers, who (since they aren’t Americans) respond in force. Eventually occupying the entire Strimonas river valley before moving into Thessaloniki. They take the Bay and the airport and after a year or two the city becomes the richest and most prosperous in Greece, with a massive population boom and influx of German tourists and industry.

  9. dicentra says:

    I’m more worried about Germany invading Greece.

    I’m sure all these crises will do their share of devastation in the near future. No need to pick a favorite.

  10. Ernst Schreiber says:

    [W]e all get that Obama’s insistence on saying “ISIS is not Muslim” is a tactic rather than a statement of belief, but to what end, precisely?

    I think it’s the internationl version of What’s the matter with Kansas meets the Pathology of the Elites. I.e., don’t you knuckle dragging mouf-breevers know we only want to hep you?!? That we know what’s best for you? Of course you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t be a godbothering bitterclinging raghead camel jockey!

    That last bit may be sotto voce.

    The wages of liberal/progressive pity, as it were.

  11. geoffb says:

    [B]ut to what end, precisely?

    Stir up the hornets nest?

  12. dicentra says:

    I think it’s the international version of What’s the matter with Kansas

    The denial of ISIS’s Islamic roots is just a hipster pose? They’re flashing the star on their Sneechy bellies?

    Granted, they are doing that, but no way is that all they’re doing. Their narratives are never crafted independently of their political agenda. There’s always some kind of misdirection going on, some fundamental assumption to be kicked away, thus to collapse a wall.

    It’s not just to be contrary or obtuse and to thumb us in the eye. Stakes are too high.

  13. dicentra says:

    Stir up the hornets nest?

    Who are the hornets, the cousin’ humpin bible-thumpin teabaggers?

    Stirring up a hornets’ nest is always preparatory to something else. Piss us off so badly we begin to erupt, giving them the excuse to drop the hammer?

    Possibly, but as I said in my last, the stakes are high enough that they’ve got something else going on.

  14. geoffb says:

    No, the Islamists as the hornets.

    Saying that they are perverting Islam and lecturing them as to what is “true” Islam, with the lecture being delivered by the President of the Big Satan, is a way to exhort them to even greater efforts and aid further recruitment.

  15. geoffb says:

    While at the same time projecting what he is doing unto his political opponents.

    Those who identify the black-clad extremists with their religious roots, the commander-in-chief argued repeatedly, are peddling a “lie” that will drive recruitment by the nation’s enemies and ultimately hurt U.S. interests. “These terrorists are desperate for legitimacy. And all of us have a responsibility to refute the notion that groups like ISIL somehow represent Islam, because that is a falsehood that embraces the terrorists’ narrative,” he said, using the U.S. government’s preferred acronym for ISIS, which is also known as the Islamic State.

    But he did not stop there. A day after talking about the “debate in the press and among pundits””over terminology, he accused others in the public sphere Thursday of aiding the terrorist cause by highlighting the connection between Islamic teachings and Islamic State’s tactics, which include rape, beheadings, crucifixions and slavery. “That narrative sometimes extends far beyond terrorist organizations,” he continued. “That narrative becomes the foundation upon which terrorists build their ideology and by which they try to justify their violence, and that hurts all of us, including Islam and especially Muslims who are the ones most likely to be killed.”

  16. Ernst Schreiber says:

    There’s also something of a head-in-the-sand aspect. If they don’t name the problem, then they don’t have to confront it.

    Much easier to chin stroke about “root causes” after all.

    Or thumbsuck about “blowback” “radicalization” etc. if your concerned about getting punched back twice as hard.

    As the case may be.

  17. dicentra says:

    I guess I don’t think Obama sees the caliphate as a problem to him, meaning they won’t hit us on his watch because he’s sympathetic to their grievances and all that rot.

    For all we know, Obama is secretly arming them.

  18. sdferr says:

    Is it not most interesting that the black-box turns out to be, not ISIS and what ISIS wants, but the motivations and intentions of the ClownDisaster administration and what they want? What previous period in American history was closest to this? Any?

  19. newrouter says:

    >For all we know, Obama is secretly arming them.<

    not really #isisisislam just took them from the retreating iraqi army

  20. dicentra says:

    What previous period in American history was closest to this? Any?

    Ima just take a stab and venture that Woodrow Wilson telling us he’d never get us into WWI mighta been.

    Given that WWI saw the end of the Ottoman empire and the drawing of the Sykes-Picot boundaries that ISIS is hell-bent on erasing, thus to recreate the True Caliphate.

  21. dicentra says:

    not really #isisisislam just took them from the retreating iraqi army

    That wasn’t actual speculation on my part so much as illustrating how Totes Opposite one hand behaves compared to the other.

  22. sdferr says:

    Listen to Sen. Ben Sasse. You’ll thank yourself for doing that, and him for speaking.

  23. Darleen wrote: The rest of Obama’s execrable remarks are full of Islamophilia…

    Should read: The rest of Obama’s excreted remarks are full of Islamofellating

  24. To attempt to answer your question, Di…

    Let me quote something I wrote over at TCOTS back in January:

    I still maintain that it is the goal of The Jarrett Junto to see the world divided up into four Totalitarian Regimes: The Caliphate, the Red Chinese, the Fascist Russians, and the Anti-Western West [ie: Oceania or, perhaps, more fittingly ‘Appeasenia’]. A key part of bringing about the triumph of The Caliphate will be the destruction of Israel, just as a key part of bringing about the transformation of The West into a Soft Totalitarian state will be the destruction of the nations of The Anglosphere from within. [I’m not in any way implying that I believe this strategy is Realistic — far from it because Leftist Thinking is never anything but fantastical dreaming.]

    http://thecampofthesaints.org/2015/01/26/is-obama-an-anti-semite/

  25. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I remember playing that game in high school Bob.

    Close enough, anyways.

  26. Ernst Schreiber says:

    This is what “arms are for hugging diplomacy” looks like

    Those official State Department bloggers sure put the “dip” in Dipnote.

  27. Ernst Schreiber says:

    or this

  28. Ernst wrote: I remember playing that game in high school Bob.

    Mr. Soetoro never left high school.

    Mark Steyn agrees:

    Even the Obammyboppers of an otherwise adoring media seem to understand his big conference on “countering violent extremism” is a bit of a joke.

    Undeterred, President Obama has unveiled the summit’s bumper sticker: “Religions Don’t Kill People. People Killed People.” It got him through to the next round in the middle-school debate-team county quarter-finals, so who knows the impact it will have on the Islamic State….

    http://www.steynonline.com/6818/living-history

  29. newrouter says:

    >or this<

    yes a "community organizer" will set things right ….. the commie way

Comments are closed.