I’ve had some
great jobs during my thirty-five years in the Army. One of my favorites was serving as the
Strategic Planner for Army Forces in Afghanistan for the transition to Phase 4 of the
Campaign. My immediate boss was one of the greatest
Generals our Army’s ever produced. I had
two goals in that job; first, make my boss the smartest guy in the room, secondly,
not get yelled at. Key to achieving that
end: devour mounds of data, information and intelligence, analyze and synthesize
it, then brief him accordingly. With
that mindset, I’ll use this brief column to tell you what you need to know
about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
First, why
should you care about ISIS? Because they
want you to convert or die. Secondly,
they‘re on the march; gathering up territory, resources, followers and
enslaving captives across the Middle East,
Africa, and the cyber world, leaving a trail of death and destruction in
their wake.
As
Dr. Sebastian Gorka recently wrote, “The spread of ISIS influence is not just about territorial
control, it is about the staggering success of its international call to holy
war, with an estimated 19,000
westerners having
left their homes to wage jihad.” They’ve
been joined by followers from over 90 countries. They’re also gaining the loyalties of
numerous other Islamic franchises. The most recent being
Africa’s Boko Haram. Further, the FBI
reports there are active investigations into ISIS related activity in
all fifty of the United States.
Wood is clear, “The
reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic…the religion
preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned
interpretations of Islam.” In fact, they
go to great lengths to be true to Islamic teaching, “Virtually every major decision and law
promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls…‘the Prophetic
methodology,’ which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in
punctilious detail.”
Dr. Gorka explains, “Religion is so important
to this war that it even defines the way in which the terrorists will kill you.” Gorka uses the beheadings of infidels as a
case in point, “the Koran teaches, the infidel must be ‘smitten on the neck’ (Koran Ch. 47 V. 4).” When they killed Lt. Kaseasbeh, the Jordanian
Muslim pilot, they dealt with him as an ‘apostate.’ Thus, “he had to be killed
not as an infidel but as one who committed the sin of leaving Islam and
therefore, he was to be treated as if he were in hell, i.e. burnt alive.”
Princeton scholar
Bernard Haykel, the leading expert on the group’s theology explains, “People
want to absolve Islam…it’s this ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ mantra…Slavery,
crucifixion, and beheadings are not something that freakish jihadists are
cherry-picking from the medieval tradition.” Islamic State fighters “are smack in the
middle of the medieval tradition and are bringing it wholesale into the present
day.”
Perhaps
most interesting – their eschatology. The
caliphate expands -- some believe it will cover the entire Earth. Then “an anti-Messiah, known in Muslim
apocalyptic literature as Dajjal, will come from the Khorasan region of eastern
Iran and kill a vast number of the caliphate’s fighters, until just 5,000
remain, cornered in Jerusalem. Just as Dajjal prepares to finish them off,
Jesus—the second-most-revered prophet in Islam—will return to Earth, spear
Dajjal, and lead the Muslims to victory.”
Now, if only the Obama administration can
convince the Islamic State that climate change is the biggest threat the world
is facing today.
