The ongoing atrocities happening in the world today perpetrated by terrorist organisations like the Islamic State (ISIS) are based on the teachings of Islam, according to an Iraqi journalist.
Fadel Boula, in his article titled "Does Terror Truly Have No Religion'' in the pro-Iranian Iraqi newspaper Al-Akhbar, rejected claims that the terror campaign being waged by the ISIS and its kind is completely unrelated to Islam. The article was picked up and translated to English by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
"The terror that is shaking the world today is not a natural disaster like a tornado, a thunderstorm or an earthquake, and it is not perpetrated by savage tribes. It is perpetrated by people who enlist [because they are] inspired by a religious ideology,'' Boula said, according to MEMRI.
"[These people] advocate enforcing and spreading [this ideology as a set of] dogmatic principles that must be imposed by the force of the sword, and which [mandate] killing, expulsion and destruction wherever they go."
Boula stressed that the ISIS terrorists are "motivated by extremist Salafi ideology and that their atrocities represent Allah's will and directives.''
"Since its inception, this movement of terror has espoused a Salafi ideology that champions religious extremism, and brainwashed people of all ages have rallied around its flag, [people who were] trained to kill themselves and kill others in order to attain martyrdom.''
Boula further blamed Saudi sheikh Osama bin Laden for laying the cornerstone for the first terror cell, now known al-Qaeda, which eventually allowed the formation of a branch of al-Qaeda in Iraq, now known as the Islamic State in Iraq. The terrorist later launched a war in the name of religion, influenced by fatwas of extremist clerics especially in Saudi Arabia.
As for the plight of Yazidis—most of whose women and children had been abused, enslaved and killed—Boula claimed that the attacks on these people were carried out by terrorists "with Allah's approval, and they are perpetrated by those who praise Allah day and night and who pray fervently and do everything according to his will."
He also wrote: "When the terrorists blew up the World Trade Center and several airplanes, killing thousands of victims, Osama bin Laden, surrounded by his people, said on television: 'This is a victory from Allah.' And now ISIS is bragging about killing innocent people in Paris, saying that it was 'done with Allah's approval,' and threatening that the next attack will be in the U.S., Allah willing. And [Sheikh Yusouf] Al-Qaradhawi and others like him pray and hope that, in the wake of this terrorist momentum, a day will arrive when Muslims inundate Europe and subdue it to Islam. Is this not enough to convince [us] that terror [does] have a religion?"
Boula's article contradicts the belief of many, both Muslims and non-Muslims, that Islam in itself is a religion of peace.
Following the 9/11 terror attacks, President George W. Bush said the enemy was not Islam but terror.
President Barack Obama has also repeatedly insisted that Islam and terror are completely unrelated. He defended Islam on several occasions, stressing that "Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism but an important part of promoting peace."
