Monday, May 6, 2019

The ISIS Conducted Easter Attacks on Christians to Win the Sympathy of Muslims and To Reclaim Its Lost Ground




By S. Arshad, New Age Islam
03 May 2019
The ISIS which came to prominence in 2014 with its caliphate in Syria and Iraq wielded a severe blow to Islam and destroyed the image of Muslims in the eyes of the non-Muslims of the world. It destroyed mausoleums and Mazars of important Islamic personalities and even destroyed the graves of holy prophets. It encouraged promiscuity among Muslims and promoted illicit sex among Muslims in the name of its so called jihad. Many Muslim girls and women lost their purity by joining the ISIS.  The terror outfit killed many innocent Muslims and non-Muslims in thousands and oppressed many innocent tribes whom Muslims had failed to convey the message of Islam.  Instead of admitting their failure in conveying the message of Islam, the ISIS held these tribes responsible and killed them and abducted their women and raped them.
The most painful and unfortunate part of this gory episode was that many Muslim organizations and Islamic scholars accepted them as the flag bearers of Islam and accepted Baghdadi as their Khalifa. Some of them even addressed him as Amirul Mominin. However, after the government of India on demand of New Age Islam and other right minded people banned the ISIS in India and the forces fighting the ISIS in Syria and Iraq successfully defeated them, the Muslim organizations, scholars and Urdu press stop glorifying them and last month the US announced that it had totally destroyed the so-called caliphate of Baghdadi. The humanity had taken a sigh of relief in the thought that after the Al Qaida, the ISIS had also been destroyed and it will not be able to damage Islam and Muslims of the world any more.
But the terror attacks in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka a couple of days ago killing more than 300 innocent worshippers and holidayers and damaging churches has made it clear that the ISIS  was down but not out.  The latest news reports suggest that the ISIS has claimed responsibility for the eight attacks in Sri Lanka. Initially it was suspected that the terrorist organization of Sri Lanka, National Tawheed Jamat was behind the attacks but a press release by the mouthpiece of the ISIS, Amaq, has claimed that the people associated with Tawheed Jamat were with the ISIS. It means that the ISIS had provided support to the organization. This indicates that the ISIS had spread its tentacles in Sri Lanka and may have its members in other countries of Asia too.
The ISIS has said that the attacks were made in retaliation against the attacks on Muslims in mosques in New Zealand in March. The attacks had drawn huge condemnation from the world and Muslims had drawn sympathy. Both Muslims and non-Muslims  particularly Christians had condemned the attackers who was a radicalized Christian and the Prime Minister of New Zealand had expressed her deep anguish and condemnation over the heinous crime.  Growing Islamophobia was blamed for the attacks and the Muslims the world over had praised the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her tough actions against the culprits.  For the moment, the Muslims the world over were seen as victims and not as the perpetrators of terrorism as is generally the perception about them thanks to the black deeds of terrorist and extremist organizations like the ISIS, the Taliban, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Jaish-e-Mohammad etc.
But the Sri Lanka terror attacks by a terrorist organization of Sri Lanka with the active support of the ISIS has destroyed the euphoria among the Muslims by killing more than 300 innocent Christians and other non-Muslims. Some of them are Indians. The attacks smack of the modus operandi of the Al Qaida who tried to win the sympathy of the Muslims by conducting terror attacks on emotional issues close to the hearts of the Muslims. For example, the Al Qaida conducted the attack on Charlie Hebdo to win sympathy of the Muslims. Similarly, the ISIS aided the attacks on the Christians of Sri Lanka to win the sympathy of the Muslims of the world at a time their caliphate has been destroyed and they are trying to reclaim their lost ground among the Muslims.  By claiming that they took the lives of more than three hundred Christians to avenge the killing of 50 Muslims in New Zealand, they want to show to the Muslims that they are the well wishers of the Muslims and will take action when they are hurt.
But this strategy will not work for them as it did not work for Al Qaida. Muslims have rejected them and do not need them.  Muslims have realized that terror outfits like the ISIS or National Tawheed Jamat are enemies of Islam and have done them irreparable damage to Islam and Muslims.
It has also to be seen now that the ISIS have claimed responsibility for the heinous crime, how the Islamic organizations and Islamic scholars of India and the world react to it. Those Islamic scholars who had vociferously condemned the attack on New Zealand Muslims blaming Islamophobia will once again find it difficult to condemn the ISIS because they had praised and glorified the ISIS in 2014 until the government had banned them. It is expected that these black sheep will circulate conspiracy theories giving clean chit to the ISIS. Muslims should realize for once and for ever that until they reject extremist ideology and outfits in any garb, the world will see many recurrences of incidents like Christchurch and Colombo. Muslims must reject extremist thought and extremist interpretations of the Quran and Hadith.

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