We are not surprised, but happy to see Muslim leaders condemning the terrorists who brutally killed a US journalist in Iraq. We maintain that these people being financed by sources bent on diverting world sympathy from the brutal carnage committed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the Palestinians.
We also maintain that the wrong policy of US and Israel is the root cause of terrorism among the Muslims. Some insane elements identifying themselves as Muslims are also being used and financed by non-Muslim sources to serve anti-Muslim interest.
After Sunni militants with the Islamic State beheaded US journalist James Foley and distributed a graphic video of the killing, Muslim organizations, companies and individuals both in the US and the Middle East decried the group’s brutality, saying ISIS did not represent the religion. The US Council of Muslim Organizations, a coalition that leads national and local Muslim organizations, condemned the beheading, saying it “rejects its ideology and actions.” The Muslim Council of Britain also condemned the murder of Foley and called for united action by the Muslims to stop the “poison of extremism” from entering their communities.
Those ISIS terrorists should be ashamed of their cowardice by killing the helpless and innocent people, both Muslims and non-Muslims. They are not for any Muslim cause, only taking advantage of Muslims anger against brutalities by others against the Muslims indiscriminately.
Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in the country, said on Tuesday; the militant groups Islamic State and al Qaeda were “enemy number one of Islam” and not in any way part of the faith. Although the Mufti and other senior Saudi clerics have condemned Islamic State, al Qaeda and other groups before, the timing of Al al-Sheikh’s statement is significant given the gains by militants in Iraq. “Extremist and militant ideas and terrorism which spread decay on Earth, destroying human civilization, are not in any way part of Islam, but are enemy number one of Islam, and Muslims are their first victims,” he said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
ISIS claimed it established its Caliphate weeks ago, but it has continued to expel ethnic minorities from their homes in Iraq in an attempt to broaden its influence. ISIS also began targeting and killing Yazidis, a minority population living in the Sinjar Mountains – one of the reasons the US launched airstrikes in the country. The ISIS militants in the video that showed Foley’s beheading said they were acting in retaliation for the US bombing their convoys in Iraq.
In the video, an ISIS militant says the US military has “caused casualties among Muslims” with its airstrikes in Iraq – a statement that so far remains impossible to verify. ISIS, though – also referred to as “daesh” or “daash” from its Arabic acronym – has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Muslims during its siege of Iraqi towns. But ISIS, which wants to govern a large part of the Middle East, does not have the support of the majority of Muslims living in Iraq and Syria. The militant group is not only targeting other ethnic minorities in Iraq, but it is also other Muslims, including Shi’ites, which make up the majority of the Iraqi population, and Sunnis who defy them. The Muslim countries will have to be eager to help USA to exterminate ISIS. But it is circulated in the Western press that the US feels the need of President Assad of Syria’s help. That is American policy goes senselessly, showing a tendency to keep alive terrorism among the Muslim countries. ISIS grew with the help of Assad and Assad himself is a brutal killer.
Our Prophet Muhammad himself warned the believers to keep away from the zealots in religion – those who take religion to extremes. It is an unfortunate part of all religion that religious doctrine tends to attract those who are ignorant and fanatical. We stand by the views of most Muslims who have rightly condemned this heinous act of the slaying of an innocent American journalist and hope that ISIS gets the punishment it deserves – its total and final obliteration. Such terrorists are invariably irresponsible and the Muslims must condemn them and isolate them as not Muslims. We shall urge the Muslim leaders to reveal their sources of fund.
So far as the Western countries including America are concerned our appeal is: please try to help the Muslim democratic moderates as the most effective force for fighting Muslim terrorism. Do not look for foreign conspiracy to punish the Muslims without forgetting that the Muslims are the World’s second largest religious community. Muslim countries are not resourceless although now seem powerless. The West does not need a new Hitler like Netanyahu or Assad of Syria and spend billions of dollars to fight terrorists through military operations. Wrong alliances will only make the Muslims more angry and will be forced to be recruited as insane terrorists.
