Hello. Humanity has made an astounding amount of social and scientific progress in the last century and a half. What were once taboos, nonsensical, and wrong in society are now looked on in a different manor. Homosexuality was once considered to be immoral and against the will of god. Women for centuries upon centuries were treated as second class citizens and often objectified with no repercussions. Communism used to be the great threat to America. Discoveries in the field of science has lead to miracles once thought to be the work of God. Curing diseases that plagued human civilization of 1000s of years, creating machines and devices that have brought humanity increasingly closer together, and allowing everyone’s voices to be heard.
But I am not focusing on the great achievements of man but rather on a certain “Islamic” fundamentalist group that is bringing mankind back to a simpler time. Where gruesome public executions were the norm, you can claim to love your god as an excuse to kill hundreds and things like science and social rights are non-existent. I of course am speaking of the terrorist group known as the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (alternatively referred to as Syria). This group is now synonymous with Barbarism for their inhumane methods and practices. This group has been, for the past year, kidnapping and beheading hostages and posting the executions on sites such as Twitter and Facebook; Which is in of itself a paradox given their anti-western beliefs — they preach about how they will bring death to America while using site that were founded and run in America.
But that is only a minor example of the hypocrisy of their policies. They claim to follow the exact words of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, while carrying out acts which are directly against his will. Muhammad believed never to start a fight unless struck first directly, Jihad(The Struggle). He believed in help all men in their time of need, even non-Muslims. He believed in fighting oppressors like the Islamic State. If Muhammad were alive today you can bet he would be the number one enemy of the Militants. ISIS kills NOT out of self-defense but to strike fear and to conquer. ISIS only helps themselves and anyone willing to aid them in their wars. They believe the Western world; The United States, The European Union and The United Kingdom, are the aggressors “striking first” by having a military present and spreading their culture to the region and they are following the Jihad against the oppressors as Muhammad would want to do. However the West has a military presence in the Middle East because groups like ISIS exist. 1 prime example of this is the aftermath of the Iraq War where after the US withdrew, groups like and including ISIS ran amok in Iraq after blitzing Syria. Currently what counts as the ‘State of Islam’ is half of Syria and most of Northern Iraq.
This territory was claimed by the Islamic State through force, preying on the overwhelmed and exhausting Iraqi Army that we struggled so hard to train for threats like this. Cities and and villages claimed by the Islamic State abyed by a cruel zealotic marshall law enforced by the Militants. In these lands any sort of music is outlawed, and meanwhile Human Trafficking, Slavery, Summary Executions, Cruelty towards women, children and elders, use of child soldiers, Organ Trafficking and Mass-executions are not only commonplace but celebrated. Is this a society that the prophet Muhammad would want? No. He would be disgusted that these men would act so barbarically in the name of the god Allah.
The groups existence is well known today, but upon learning their history we see that they have been practicing these acts for sometime. In 1999 a group of radicalised Muslims started a small terrorist group in Iraq named ‘The Organization of Monotheism and Jihad’ lead by a man named Abu Musab Al-zarqawi. Following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq this group took action against the US invading forces. Needing supplies the group agreed to be absorbed by the major terrorist group Al-Qaeda and swore loyalty to Osama Bin-Laden. The group was then renamed ‘The Organization of Jihad’s Base in Mesopotamia’ also known as ‘Al-Qaeda in Iraq’ (AQI). The AQI launched numerous attacks on the US Forces in Iraq. then in 2004 the AQI captured American radio reporter Nick Berg and beheaded him on camera, a taste of things to come. After Al-zarqawi was killed by an airstrike in 2006 the cell AQI was taken over by the second in command Ayman Al-Zawahiri and the group was renamed the ISI, the Islamic State of Iraq and grew in numbers. Al-Zawahiri can up with a plan to escalate their war on the Western forces in Iraq until he was killed in 2010 and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took charge. Then in April 2013 ISI detached from Al-Qaeda and began the plan formed by Al-Zawahiri. They then adopted their current name after spilling over into Syria, ‘The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’.
When one sees how they go about their practice and compare them to the actual beliefs of Muhammad and Islam you wonder what got lost in the translation. They are view not just by the US as monsters, but by the EU, UK, NATO, UAE, but Al-Qaeda themselves view them as hostile creatures and have gone to great lengths to distant themselves and combat the Islamic State. But what is worst that the IS is that they CAN do this very few things outside air strikes on factories and training camps in Iraq and Syria has been do to combat them. They have killed hundreds, publicly executed dozens of citizen, made hundreds of threats and attacks on the rest of the world.