Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Is Allah Winning?
Is Allah winning? He certainly seems to be doing so. The Islamic State has captured, among other areas, strategic towns in both Iraq and Syria: in Iraq, Ramadi, in Syria, Palmyra. This means that the Islamic State controls a large area of Iraq and Syria.
The Daily Mail on Friday, May 22, carries an article showing how the Islamic State has doubled the area it holds in Syria. The Atlantic shows this map of Syria and Iraq. Observe how close Ramadi is to Baghdad and Palmyra to Damascus. People in Baghdad and Damascus must be considerably concerned with how the war is going. The Worldwide Caliphate is apparently well on the way to achieving its declared objective.
The leader of the religious believers, Caliph Abu Bakr ai-Baghdadi, seems on his way to fulfilling his declared ambitions. He aims at establishing the House of Peace throughout the world. A descendant of Muhammad, he is using the handbook Muhammad left behind to do that, and is following his example. His followers have also learned well, following the instructions to the letter. The Islamist Jihadists seem to be proving that their god, Allah, is as Supreme as they claim.
Many people believe al-Baghdadi is the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam, who will appear at the same time as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Together, they will fight against the false Messiah, or the Antichrist. This belief is another example of the genius of Muhammad in tying the belief systems of Islam into those of Judaism and Christianity, to claim and supersede them. So far, no one seems to be claiming to be the returned Jesus Christ of the Second Coming. But the Mahdi is well underway with military successes that seem to back up his claims. Every victory means more Jihadists will be joining him to fight for Allah and his last and greatest Prophet, Muhammad. A religious war seems to appeal to many.
According to AlMonitor, the Senate Armed Services Panel has just held a hearing on the subject of the strategy to be followed against the Islamic State. It was stated that it would appear that now is the time to engage in combat. If the United States doesn’t lead, no one else steps up either. Panel Chairman, John McCain (R-Ariz.) called for a complete overhaul of US strategy.
According to an article in the Military Times, in the opinion of retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, who was executive officer to retired Army General David Petraeus, in 2011 when the U.S. withdrew its troops from Iraq, they had just about defeated al Qaeda. The withdrawal led to the creation of the Islamic State. In his opinion, the only way to deal with the Islamic State is with “boots on the ground.”
What do you think about the present strategy of the U.S. against the Islamic State? Is the question about the Middle East for prospective candidates for the Presidency, “Did the withdrawal of troops from Iraq create the vacancy now filled by the Islamic State?” Ought the U.S. stay out of the Middle East?
Published in General
The Christians who believe God literally created the earth in six days don’t go around killing “infidels”, either. The Muslims who believe the Quran is the literal word of Allah, as recited by Muhammad, do have an unfortunate tendency to slaughter innocents in His name. Because Muhammad told them to.
But are Christians who disagree with them not reading the bible correctly?
Who are you to tell me I don’t have a monopoly on the truth?
A distinction without a difference.
This.
40000 is NOT a small sample size, although clearly not scientific, still when you get over 80% to respond that way.. . In addition, these are not poor goat herders in Kaffiristan or Backwardia, these are people who have satellite TVand are on the web, many probably in the West. The greatest damage done to us by our idiotic handling of the Terror War is we now have the worst of all possible worlds. We have the opposite of the old Roman saying
ODERINT DUM METUANT
“Let them hate, so long as they fear”.
They hate us, but no longer fear us. They have realized that a large part of the West has no will to win, to do what is neccesary. As a result this thing will get much larger and bloodier.
Breitbart on the poll.
And some info on Aljazeera viewers (not an exact fit for context, but possibly indicative) from which:
So the sample size is actually about 0.1% of viewers. Actually that’s a fairly large size sample for a poll. Getting 81% result like that is …. chilling.
The sample is to some (a lot?) degree self selecting, but I am not surprised – I wonder how many of them are from Saudi (and what exactly the question was – have I missed that?)
I’m curious – why do some people here believe that the only proper way to be a Muslim is to be a soldier of the Caliphate, slaying infidels and forcing the world to submit? Should Muslims who are interested in their religion start cutting off heads?
Mohammed was a warlord and a conqueror. Islam was often spread by the sword. These are historical facts, but they do not require Muslims to follow Mohammed’s example – he was not sinless or perfect according to most accounts of Islamic theology. Muslims have had multiple interpretations nearly from the start.
Since I am not a Muslim, I do not care about what authentic Islam is. What I care about it the behavior and goals of Muslims. Islam is what Muslims say it is
It’s a web poll in which respondents were self selecting and there are often serious issues with bots manufacturing results.
Compare polls conducted by reputable organizations in reputable ways. See, eg., Lebanese Muslims coming down 96-1 against Al Qaeda, and Jordanian Muslims coming down 81-13.
It would be quite surprising to me if one in three Al Jazeera viewers thought that Al Qaeda sucked for reasons other than its conflict with ISIS (which wasn’t an issue at the moment of the first poll), but ISIS was great.
You can also see dissonant results in politics; if 80% of Saudis supported ISIS, the Saudi government would topple tomorrow. If the overwhelming bulk of your population support a particular side in a war, and the government is the leading external (ie., not Iraq or Syria) governmental figure on the other side, after Iran, then you’d expect, at the very least, to see a lot more Saudi government figures being murdered.
The combination of it being a polling method that is easy to exploit and the results looking like they’ve been massively exploited.
Pretty much.
Muslims even disagree about what ‘that’ is.
Yes, we had them as allies. But then our media and the Democrat Party demonized President Bush and our efforts. We threw away our victory and left our allies to be hunted down by the fanatics. To paraphrase: America is a fickle friend, and will fall all over itself giving concessions to its enemies. A logical actor would choose to be an enemy these days, I am afraid.
Not unlike other times, I am afraid. Eisenhower threw Patton under the bus, embraced the Limey Montgomery. He also threw his mistress under the bus. What a stand-up guy.
The system by which America selects its general officers pretty much ensures that they will be of dubious character, at best. There are so many politicians who have the ability to kill a field-grade or higher officer’s career that the only way one can make it even to brigadier general is to never, ever, piss anyone off and to be a toady for the political class. I submit to you that under those conditions, only a complete rotter is likely to make it to flag rank.
Och, I hear what you are saying, Zafar. I don’t think I’ve said anywhere that those Muslims who interpret jihad to mean the inner struggle to follow the higher self, are not correct to do so. Muhammad said about jihad being the greater struggle of this inner quest. He also said the lesser jihad was what he was fighting. Muslim scholars are divided about what it all means.
What is also being said is the Islamist Jihadists don’t believe that moderate Muslims are true Muslims. In the minds of the people of the Islamic State, they are the true Muslims and Allah is with them, as they say themselves.
They don’t, but to be honest it stings a little to hear that you agree with them.