Here is a brave Egyptian journalist: Ibrahim Eissa, who, in this four-minute video translated by the The Middle East Media Research Institute, chastizes his fellow Muslims and Egyptians for promulgating Western conspiracy theories about terrorists attacks, and for claiming that ISIS simply isn’t Islamic in nature and intent. Click on the screenshot to go to the clip (Eissa has received several awards for favoring democracy and freedom of expression):
Because of what ISIS does (for example, killing non-Sunni Muslims and Yazidis, brutally repressing women, killing apostates, adulterers gays), the time is coming when we can no longer credibly claim that it isn’t either acting on Muslim dictates, or that all of its actions (and those of other terrorists groups like Boko Haram) are caused by Western colonialism. People like Eissa recognize that, but of course we can ignore him because we Westerners know better.
The ironic thing is that many people (e.g Maajid Nawaz, Ayaan Hirsi Ali) claim that it’s moderate Muslims like Eissa who will really help turn Muslims away from terrorism, and yet he gets virtually no airplay in the West, for his own message doesn’t suit the blame-the-West narrative.
h/t: Geoff
Sub
Oh dear, I wouldn’t like to be in his shoes when this spreads.
Actually I’m not sure I’d like to be within 20 or 30m of his shoes. I can work out the approximate blast radius of several kilos of “plastique”. And I’m not terribly attached to what remains of my hearing.
“Oh dear, I wouldn’t like to be in his shoes when this spreads.”
I’ve seen him say similar things quite often. That being said who is he going to upset? The extremists agree with him. It’s the moderates who don’t agree with him, and they generally aren’t killing people. It seems like it would be more dangerous to argue Isis aren’t Muslims.
So, Egypt has it’s own regressive “liberals”. Who would have guessed?
At least it’s a sign there are non-extremists in Egypt, even if they need a bit of training to get them in touch with reality.
I wonder, does anyone know, if Egypt has helped the coalition at all? Or do they just stand in the background watching their fellow Muslims terrorize the world? You’d think they would want to show their hand.
Egypt is a member of Obama’s coalition. I made a list of the members more than a year ago and at that stage the extent of their involvement I wrote was “expressed support.” However, I vaguely recall them doing something against DAESH in Libya.
Mr. Eissa made an appearance on WEIT in February. It’s good to see that he is still alive. I suspect that as long as Sisi continues to torture the Muslim Brotherhood and go after the ideology of al-Qaeda and ISIS, Mr. Eissa will be tolerated. Once Sisi feels that he has beaten the Muslim Brotherhood, I would worry for Mr. Eissa’s personal safety. x
My guess is he’s going to upset everyone because Islam is used as a political tool. Even the “secular” dictators use it. Didn’t Saddam claim he was a descendant of some early Islamic character? Didn’t he also claim to have a Koran written in his own blood?
Wasn’t Gaddafi pushing Islamic socialism?
Anyway, the people he’s really going to have a problem with are white middle-class Guardian readers. They really hate any criticism of Islam at all 😀
Gaddafi had as much to do with Socialism as Tamerlane had to do with monetarism. Gaddafi introduced sharia, banned Trades Unions, outlawed strikes and shut down newspapers. Being the ignorant and humourless megalomaniac he was, he declared himself ‘King of Kings’. The Ozymandias of Libya. Oh how the ghost of Shelley must have laughed at that. I know of no Socialist on the planet who has declared a fatwa on Switzerland: Muammar did from his tent, as the lone and level sands stretched far away. x
Fascinating — and very well put: “the time is coming when we can no longer credibly claim that it isn’t either acting on Muslim dictates, or that all of its actions … are caused by Western colonialism.” I think this is so crucial for people to recognize, because we can’t solve the problem of IS extremism if we aren’t clear about what exactly its causes are: in this case, a combination of Western-provoke wars *and* a religious belief system that enables good people to engage in wretched acts of unthinkable evil (to paraphrase Steven Weinberg).
… and throw in a bit of (reputedly AGW caused) drought.
Yes, I definitely saw that. Not the first study to link terrorism with global warming!
http://www.risksandreligion.org
Maybe it’s the suspenders…very brave Egyptian.
More power to him!
“yet he gets virtually no airplay in the West, for his own message doesn’t suit the blame-the-West narrative.”
That’s doubtless a part of the problem, but I think it’s much more that he doesn’t fit the “all Muslims are monsters” narrative so beloved by parts of our media. It won’t do to have a Muslim wearing suspenders, looking a bit like Wilfred Brimley, and being rational — not scary enough for the nightly news.
I believe he is a Christian, not a Muslim.
No, I checked and he’s a Muslim. The ironic thing, though is that his surname, popular among Muslims, means “Jesus”!
Not surprising – Jesus is the second most important human in Islam, after all. (And we all know how popular the name of the first is!)
Think about it why do criminals don’t go shoot up a police station , a military base, or the White House because they all have guns !!!
This was a planned terrorist attack , from the plan to go to work and start a argument then go suit up in tactical gear to commit a terrorist attack so this administration and the controlled media can call it work place violence instead of terrorism so you can think it’s nothing just as these innocent people did . Gun control kills innocent people now tuff gun sentencing is more sensible.
Think about it why do criminals don’t go shoot up a police station , a military base, or the White House because they all have guns !!!
Do you see the hypocrisy when I see on the news that if you see something suspicious report it …REALLY do we all forget what happened to a teacher and a school when they took steps when they thought a clock was a bomb.. Called racist and the person was given praise and even invited to the White House. This political correctness is killing innocent people!!!