Another thing I'd point out to the people who are routinely dismissing a link in all this violence to the actual doctrine in the Koran; that IS aren't 'real' or 'true' Muslims etc.
You know who else has been saying that this week? Another Jihadi group in Northern Syria, as they executed several members of IS on a little dirt track, blowing their heads off with shotguns.
It's on Liveleak with English subs if anyone want to look for it. Although it is obviously highly graphic, as a warning. What's highly interesting about it though is that its narration is translated into English, and it gives you a very real insight into their worldview, the role theology plays in their beliefs.
One thing you'll notice is that their chief executioner repeatedly cites the Koran, directly quoting it, and condemns IS as not being real Muslims. Accuses them of being in bed with Israel and Iran.
To say Islam has no role in this violence is about the most intellectually dishonest thing someone can tell you.
It's obviously shit that ordinary, well adjusted Muslims get tarred by these extremists by association, but you can't dismiss reality because it's an uncomfortable truth.
I don't know what the solution is, but I know that seemingly well intentioned dishonesty isn't really helping solve anything.
Ducado posted a good article yesterday, written by a Islamic scholar who said;
"However, the truth of the matter is that ISIS leaders and supporters can and do draw on a wealth of scriptural and historical sources to justify their actions.
Traditional interpretations of Sharia, or Islamic law, approved aggressive jihad to propagate Islam. They permitted the killing of captive enemy men. They allowed jihadis to enslave enemy women and children, as ISIS did with the
Yazidi women in Syria."
and;
"There is no equivalent of the Vatican and papal infallibility. How Sharia is interpreted by the many different communities of Muslims (from Sunni and Shia to Sufi and Salafi) is, at base, the product of an intergenerational consensus of the scholars and leaders of each community.
Islamic belief and practice is fundamentally individual and voluntary in its nature. A Muslim cannot be accountable for the views and actions of others.
One positive consequence of this absence of any one religious authority is the fact that it is possible to contest and reinterpret Sharia principles."
He goes on to say that the solution is to have popular, powerful, scholars to write new alternatives to Sharia law for people to follow in Islamic states and Caliphates if that's what they want to set up but not in the way they currently want.
Someone did try that in the 80s but was executed for doing so.
When we finally have people writing these alternative Islamic laws, the old fashioned Puritan, Wahabi, extremist Sharia laws could go down the route of vein illegal. Who is going to stand up and do it though?
