What ISIS Really Wants

[dutch508]

onager (9,139 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/123036092

What ISIS Really Wants (The Atlantic)


Very interesting article by Graeme Wood, and one of the best I've read explaining the core beliefs of ISIS:

Its rise to power is less like the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (a group whose leaders the Islamic State considers apostates) than like the realization of a dystopian alternate reality in which David Koresh or Jim Jones survived to wield absolute power over not just a few hundred people, but some 8 million.


In fact, much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse...

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.


http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

Rebuttal and counter-rebuttal at Raw Story. American Muslim leader denounced the article as "wrong." But as Wood points out, he didn't say specifically WHAT Wood got wrong:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/americas-most-prominent-muslim-says-the-atlantic-is-doing-pr-for-isis/

TexasTowelie (21,037 posts)
1. Why is this thread in the A&A group? I think that the Muslim/Islam group or the Religion group might be more appropriate.

nobody posts in the Islam/Muslim group...

Curmudgeoness (17,602 posts)
9. We all know that ISIS's intent is to bring fundamentalist and extreme Islam to the Middle East, and beyond. These are the "true believers" who wish to impose their brand of Islam on all Muslims as well as wipe the infidels off the face of the earth. Anyone who does not think this is the purpose of their actions is deluding themselves.

It really should fall upon the moderate Muslims, those who say that ISIS does not speak for them regarding Islam, to stop them. From what I am told, these are a minority of extremists and do not represent Islam, so it is time for the people who are saying this to fight back against them. The same goes with the Taliban. Stop giving them power and respectability.

RussBLib (1,665 posts)
34. I wonder, if ISIS acquired nukes....

...would they happily use them to try to wipe out all us heathens?

I haven't read the Atlantic story yet, but will, but if they want to "take over" every square inch of the planet for their "paradise" they are more insane than I imagined. And as for a "paradise" as Onager mentioned, how do the women really feel about that?

haikugal (4,207 posts)
35. I don't think anyone asks them, they're basically property.

RussBLib (1,665 posts)
39. I'm sorry, but ISIS is Islamic

They quote from the Koran; they use the Koran to justify their actions; it's all about Islam. They even use it in their name: Islamic State of Syria.

Just because they may be an extreme version of Islam does not make them non-Islamic, in the same sense that the extreme elements of Christianity are still linked to Christianity.

I really don't understand this hesitation to proclaim that ISIS is Islamic.

You know, we've had religious wars throughout the last 2,000 years. One more doesn't seem like the end of the world, no matter how much it may play into their apocalyptic vision. This type of indiscriminate killing cannot go unanswered.

[98ZJUSMC]

But it isn't Islam Islam.   

[Donpeyote]

Jewish Womenz

[SVPete]

This is the big picture summary statement that DU-folk desperately want/need to avoid, evade, and obscure:

But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

ISIS, like A-Q, and their ilk are well within the mainstream of Islam. Adjectives like "fundamentalist" (utterly incorrect usage, but it's DU) or "extreme" (I've occasionally used the term for the sake of convenience) are forms of denial: ISIS, et al, are simply faithful to the Qur'an.

[thundley4]

Curmudgeoness (17,602 posts)
9. We all know that ISIS's intent is to bring fundamentalist and extreme Islam to the Middle East, and beyond. These are the "true believers" who wish to impose their brand of Islam on all Muslims as well as wipe the infidels off the face of the earth. Anyone who does not think this is the purpose of their actions is deluding themselves.

Oh my! Is that bitch really calling  Obama delusional?

Obama has repeatedly denied that ISIS has its basis in Islamic teachings.

[DumbAss Tanker]

What ISIS Really Wants

Gigadeath.

[I_B_Perky]

onager (9,139 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/123036092

What ISIS Really Wants (The Atlantic)

To rule the entire Earth.  I don't need some fool idiot from the Atlantic to tell me that.   

And the dummies, dems and libbies say that I get my marching orders from Rush.   

[txradioguy]

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.

For once they got it right.