We the People: Fighting back against ISIS

Another senseless attack has shattered the ordinary lives of ordinary people. A terrorist with a truck killed 84 people in a rampage on Bastille Day in Nice, France. It was France’s Independence Day which is celebrated with fireworks like the Fourth of July. A Tunisian-born French citizen living in the resort city was the driver. He was a career petty criminal known to local law enforcement. He rented the truck and zigzagged down a promenade, crushing shocked strollers until he was killed by police as he exited the cab of the truck with a gun.

The cowardly and barbaric attack killed at least 10 children. The attack on a symbolic day when liberty, equality and fraternity are celebrated should only strengthen the resolve of free people around the world to work together to stop the madness. We cannot cower and we cannot be goaded into a campaign of retaliation if we want to succeed.

ISIS and terror groups need to use crude and savage tactics because only fear and hate will allow them to control people, since their ideology will never convince reasonable people to support them. They use tools of terror, namely horrific attacks, through pawns that they recruit from poor neighborhoods around the world since these are perfect places to find people susceptible to philosophies of hate and destruction.

When the poor feel powerless and think they have no hope for a good future, they can be convinced to throw away their lives and to hurt other people. If we want to stop ISIS, we must understand it and adopt a strategy to keep recruits away from its messages of hate. The children and young people of the world should have a love and respect for life inculcated in them which would protect them from all rhetoric of hate and destruction spewed in cyberspace.

Donald Trump stated, “Another horrific attack … When will we learn? It is only getting worse!” The message lacks any sensible plan of action. Hillary Clinton said that the U.S. is fighting a “war” with terrorist groups, but “a very different kind of war” where intelligence gathering and cooperation with allies to sway the minds of the people will be more important than military action. Clinton said, “I would be … focused on the intelligence surge … working with … allies and intensify our efforts against the ideologues that peddle radical jihadism online.” Her message was reasonable and contained a plan that can be put into action.

Islamic religious leaders have denounced ISIS. It has been condemned for violating Sharia and humanitarian law. A fatwa is an Islamic legal pronouncement issued by a religious leader who is a specialist on a specific issue. In 2010, a 600-page fatwa against terrorism was issued which repudiated terrorism and suicide bombing.

This comprehensive condemnation of terrorism by Islam was without “excuses or pretexts,” according to Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, an Islamic scholar. In 2013, Islamic scholars in Pakistan issued a collective fatwa against suicide bombings and killings of innocent people. Last year, Islamic scholars and respected religious authorities issued an open letter to the “fighters and followers” of the Islamic State and denounced them as un-Islamic. The letter demolished the extremist ideology of the terrorists.

The most relevant points were: It is forbidden in Islam to issue fatwas without the necessary learning and a complete Islamic legal theory. It is forbidden in Islam to kill the innocent. It is forbidden in Islam to kill emissaries, ambassadors and diplomats including journalists. It is forbidden in Islam to harm or mistreat any ‘People of the Scripture’ like Christians. It is forbidden in Islam to torture any people. It is forbidden in Islam to declare a caliphate without a consensus from all Muslims.

ISIS is un-Islamic. Muslims condemn it because they suffer death and depredation in greater numbers at the hands of these barbaric criminals and that fact must be made known to the world. ISIS’s fighters are hypocrites because they murder, maim and torture Muslims and Christians. They have killed thousands of Muslims, beheaded Muslims, Christians and journalists, enslaved people, murdered Shiite Muslims with truck bombs and executed an imam in Iraq because he denounced them.

In America, cooperation from loyal American Muslims has helped authorities to catch more terror suspects and to prevent more potential violence than any government policy. If we want to stop ISIS, we must publicize the fact that ISIS is killing “fellow” Muslims and that its tactics are decidedly un-Islamic. We can refute its propaganda and with the help of our allies get reasonable people to think for themselves.

The media must give as much attention to ISIS’s crimes against Muslims as it does to the attacks committed by despicable cowards in Europe and America. The faces of all children victims, including the martyrs of Nice, should be made known to the world.

This is not a fight between Islam and the West but it is a fight between ISIS and everyone who will not live life under ISIS’ brutal gangsterism. A Radio Free Syria program and the effective dissemination of news through Twitter and cyberspace around the world would counter ISIS propaganda.

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