NZ media have forever attempted to claim that the modern Islam ISIS stalemate can be fixed by non-openly ISIS supporting Muslims telling those who openly support an Islamic State that they are wrong about Islam. Yet the same media ignore the fact that ALL Muslims seek to follow Muhammed and the Quran; there is no such thing as moderate Islam.
This latest attempt to diagnose the Modern Islam ISIS stalemate ignores the real problem. the people who say that Muhammed is the perfect man, and we should all follow him are the problem. the people who say the Quran came from Allah so we should all follow the Quran are the problem. All Muslims seek to follow the Quran, which states that as long as all seek to jihad with their wealth or with their lives to further the cause, they will reach paradise to gain their virgins. Except women; these will be the majority of hell, for obvious reasons.
ISLAM IS THE RELIGION OF THE SWORD NOT PACIFISM
This Stuff piece completely dishonours the many jihadi who have left NZ mosques to fight for ISIS, and those here who have recruited and financially support them. It dishonours those Kiwi child brides who married in obedience to the prophet they pray daily to. This article dishonours the University of Auckland academics who protest on the central Auckland streets in support of the Muslims Brotherhood backed HAMAS’s attempts to send suicide bombers into Israel.
This proposed Modern Islam ISIS stalemate taqiyya was from stuff.co.nz:
The modern Islam and ISIS stalemate
An alternative view on ISIS and the Muslim world from a member of the Muslim community.
Another day, and another terrorist attack blemishes humanity’s daily narrative.
As if the concerns of global warming and wealth inequality weren’t enough to contend with, now Belgium and Turkey are reeling under the shock of violent crimes in which no man, woman, or child was considered sacred.
We hope for peace and a reprieve as the communities concerned grieve and pick up the pieces of their bomb-shattered lives.
Dread fills me as I sit here and write this because I know that, inevitably, this will happen again.
The solutions to terrorism offered thus far have been reactionary at best: invasions, war, displacement of people, and erosion of liberties and freedoms we once took for granted. Yet here we are today still suffering and grieving under the seemingly random and constant onslaught of terrorist attacks.
I understand this is a multifaceted issue and hugely complicated by the agendas of various governments, but we know from history that the power of the people cannot be denied. It is high time Islam and ISIS went head-to-head. This may sound like a sensationalist or flippant comment to make, but hear me out.
Most reasonable-thinking people know and understand the ideology of ISIS is the polar opposite of the theology of the Muslim majority. What is less widely understood is the reason for this. Why is it “obvious” measures, such as protests, public talks and speeches, have little or no effect? The reason has to do with religious reformation. By nature, religion is not a constant, unchanging set of values and beliefs, as the orthodoxy would like us to believe. Religions undergo their own forms of evolution – they are great shifting ideologies that change as a society grows and matures.
The so-called Islam of ISIS has nothing to do with the Islam of the Prophet Muhammad. In the early 1700s Islam was reformed by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his radically conservative ideals have completely changed the nature of Islamic thought since.
Al-Wahhab’s problematic ideology is a fertile foundation for terror organisations like ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Hezbollah, as well as the foundation for the modern day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Wahhabism is so ingrained into modern Islamic thought that most Muslims cannot tell where the old Islam ends and this new problematic rhetoric begins.
Believe it or not, Muslims are fairly average people – no doubt quite a bit like you and me. A lot of people who identify as Muslim don’t often attend mosque, nor do they pray every day, let alone five times a day. So when an average Muslim is questioned about terrorist attacks committed by groups like ISIS, he or she will usually say something along the lines of “I do not believe anyone has the right to kill anyone else” or “This is not a part of my religion” or “Such people are not Muslim”.
But if you delve deeper and ask your Muslim friend which part of Islam backs up their statement, most will be hard-pressed to identify the specifics – and this is completely normal. Many people from other religions are the same when it comes to the specific details about their religion. They may have been taught a general idea of what their religion is about, and for most people this is enough.
However, in the case of Islam this very ambiguity is what groups like ISIS prey on. ISIS and Al Qaeda promote illiteracy as a key part of their propaganda due to its effectiveness in controlling people. In effect these hardline clerics control the message given to the average Muslim and claim their message is backed up by the Quran and other religious teachings. They justify their murderous actions with quasi-religious rhetoric, which is really just the hate speech spewed by the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al-Baghdadi claims authority for his hate speech from contested secondary religious documents known as the Hadith. Tellingly enough ISIS does not use excerpts from the Quran to back up its motives and beliefs.
Muslims know that killing people is wrong. That torturing people, establishing a caliphate, invading neighbouring states, and capturing women as slaves is wrong.
But often these average Muslims face an existential crisis in that somewhere along the line they have been preached to by a Wahhabist cleric (installed in their local mosque indirectly by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). This cleric’s ideas often sound a bit dodgy, but these Muslims are afraid of challenging him for fear of being labelled a blasphemer. The cleric underlines this by citing his knowledge and authority, and that only “real Muslims” will “protect Islam” from alternative interpretations. The average Muslim’s outrage either dwindles out or is redirected. The cognitive dissonance is too much to deal with, so they put their questions and concerns out of mind.
In turn, they won’t show up to an anti-terror protest or sign a petition out of fear of being seen as a “bad Muslim”. There is the constant fear they may somehow be doing this and therefore angering God. It becomes too scary to ask anyone if this is true for fear of being labelled a blasphemer. In many Islamic countries, blasphemy is punished by death. And this is how ISIS wins. We have heard that all it takes is for good people to stay silent for the bad guys to win, but when your life is literally on the line for speaking out, how much of a choice do you really have?
So how does Islam go head-to-head with ISIS? Well, by pulling the proverbial carpet out from under their feet. Wahhabism needs to be publicly and loudly denounced as an evil ideology. The problematic texts that support it need to be loudly made insignificant, because that’s what they really are. The Hadith the ISIS leaders love to quote was not followed by Muslims until the 1700s. Muslims survived with the Quran alone for 1000 years and they can do it again.
The people who are willing to speak out against Wahhabism need to be given a platform to do so and need protection. Muslims willing to critique and explore Islam in such ways should be helped with safe spaces for them to do this, away from Wahhabist doctrine which permeates almost every Islamic school and mosque in the west.
In fact, Muslims living in the west are best placed to lead this change. We have the freedom and the safety to be able to challenge these beliefs. Our non-Muslim allies can help us by taking our message and spreading it with us. This is how you fight ISIS, by delegitimising their ideology loudly enough for all Muslims to hear.
