ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq); a terrorist group whose ultimate goals are to 1). Establish a new Islamic caliphate across the Middle East 2.) Force Muslims to submit to Al-Baghdadi’s radical Islamic perspective, while implementing a high-stakes mentality. Al-Baghdadi asks that one either “join the Islamic caliphate, or to be killed”. Muslims have observed the dark misconstructions of Islamic law that ISIS has globally relegated. Indeed, non-ISIS Muslims have seriously condemned ISIS’ actions and strongly agree that ISIS cannot even begin to consider themselves to be Muslims. Think for yourselves, there are 1.6 billion Muslims in this world while thirteen thousand of them live under the name ISIS. The thought that a group of orthodox lunatics are ruining the interpretation of a whole religion is beyond me, Muslims cannot continuously be categorized into a clump of barbaric, inhumane people who are told that their religion is like cancer in the United States that needs to be removed (low one John Bennett).
“Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or the oppressed. People asked, “O Allah’s Apostle! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?” The Prophet said, “By preventing him from oppressing others.” Prophet Muhammed (pbuh)
As an American-Muslim, I feel like it is my responsibility to speak out against ISIS, and to also absolve the name of the religion that I grew up with. Why absolve? Because Islam is seen as a sin in Modern America, and I am here to iterate the fact that no, Islam is no regret, is not something for which you may hold regret. It is a religion that taught me the importance of peace and justice for all of humanity. ISIS’ gruesome violence and oppression of Yazidis, Assyrians, Shias, and Christians do not adhere to the teachings of Islam, for Islam promotes continuity of humanistic relationships. ISIS repulses me. The beheadings of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff–and the deaths of the countless souls which we forget about in our day to day life–absolutely disgust me because it is under my name, my tenets, that these terrorists act.
“Islam doesn’t promote violence or peace. Islam is just a religion and like every religion in the world, it depends on what you bring to it. If you’re a violent person, your Islam, your Judaism, your Christianity, your Hinduism is going to be violent. There are marauding Buddhist monks in Myanmar slaughtering women and children. Does Buddhism promote violence? Of course not. People are violent or peaceful, and that depends on their politics their social world, the way that they see their communities, the way they see themselves.” Reza Aslan
People all over the world are experiencing tremendously difficult times and the best I can do is to look into and research the things I hear in the media and by spreading the right word. It is so important for all of us to remember to not condemn an entire religion due to a group of radical extremists, because they exist in all religions. A person is a representative of the self, nothing more and nothing less; a person is not a byproduct of their religion. I hope you remember this well.
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