Is ISIS a real threat to the world?

By

Sattar Rind

Everyone is talking about ISIS and its threat. Are they going to capture the world and brutally kill all human beings who do not believe them and their particular sect of Islam, as they come from the Islamic jurisprudences – Hanbali, Salafi or very commonly known Wahhabi?

One might believe that they are only 5% of the total Muslim population and mostly exist in Arabian-Gulf countries. One cannot even consider all Arabs as Salafi or Wahhabi followers. For example, in Bahrain the majority, above 70%, of people are Shiites. It is the same with Iraq.

Tunisia and Morocco are not Hanbali. Yemen is an equally divided country between Shiites and Sunni, as is Syria. It is the same situation with the other Arab countries. However, it is believed their rulers mostly belong to the Maliki or Hanbali school, though the only confirmed Wahhabi rulers are from Saudi Arabia.

For Hanbali, they hate Shiites more than anyone in the world. They want to eliminate them once and for all. Both are on different and opposite poles of hating one each other. Hanafi and Shiites are very much close to each other. Hanbali or Wahhabi hardly exists in Muslim countries, South Asia, Central Asia or South East Asia in one big chunk. Predominately these areas are mostly Hanafi or secondarily in numbers, Shiites.

In these Muslim countries the Hanafi are in the majority. The most liberal could consider none but the Sufis and their influence in numbers from the Hanafi and Shiite Muslims. They are broad minded people and love the world as a whole and accept it as a creation of God with different shapes of Himself for its mystic reason and could only be known by Him.

They are against killing, humiliating, torturing or suppressing anyone’s idea. They are humanist by nature and very broadly accept decency and human kindness. They love every human being as bear in mind His shadow and beauty.

They believe that protecting any human being is an act of getting His blessing. They observe God in totality in a grand universal perspective. Their followers are also large in numbers.

Therefore fearing that the ISIS and a few oil-rich rulers of Arab countries with petro dollars would inhale this world is an insane idea in every sense and beyond reality.

They have created issues and seem successful in disturbing the world, but why is the world not ready to accept that the same oil-rich Arab countries are very close friends of the western powerful countries and always remain their allies in every war?

Especially the US and NATO, they have wars shoulder to shoulder against Russia in Afghanistan and recently every war in the Middle East.

It is also being reported that ISIS has been created by the late Saudi Arabian King Abdullah to counter the Shiite dominancy in Iraq due to their government’s closeness with Iran.

What is the theory behind the ‘Clash of Civilizations‘? It is nothing. Neither clashes of civilizations could be justified for a few hundred thousand people fighting for their vested interests or wishing to impose a particular sect that has been rejected for hundreds of years in history by the Muslim majority.

Wahhabism was very much the latest phenomena when Saudi Arabia came into existence in 1932 and after Petroleum was discovered in 1938 and Saudi Arabia become the world’s largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the world’s second largest oil reserves.

Before that Saudi Arabia was nothing but a harsh desert area where nomadic tribal groups fought each other for nothing, in which one of the existing rulers, the Al-Saud family, later became ruler of this desert after defeating the Al Rashid tribe.

Somehow they received militant group support named Alakhwan led by Al-Wahhab, who wanted to impose its particular idealist Islamic system in said desert area. Subsequently controlling the vast Arabian area, the al-Saud family inserted their family name with the country name as it was showing a possession or property of an Al-Saud family.

They established a kingdom and changed the nomadic war in other shapes as creating Madrasas and providing funds to disseminate the idea of Wahhabism all over the world, but hardly succeeded until they created Mujahideen in Pakistan and sent them to fight the Russian Army. The same Mujahideen changed into Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Now it is being propagated very consciously and calculating that Muslims are being killed, humiliated and that their Islam is being targeted with their faith in danger. Those who are living in western countries are being manoeuvred to take part in this holy war of  God to create their own Muslim World Order.

Again it is being propagated that western countries do not accept Muslims as equal citizens and their humiliation, disgrace and dishonour has no other solution but revivalism. Either this or they are facing discrimination because they have left their originality.

This however is all meaningless terminology to attract Muslim youths of western countries, but do they know they are not able to get nationality in any Muslim Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia who may not provide it even if born in that country?

Thus I think the question of discrimination, humiliation, disgrace or dishonour is more intriguing then the merit. This tone is very captivating in many ways, though I am refusing to believe it might be happening, but I have no empirical data to say anything accurately. What is the media doing? Why do they not inform the youth that any of them could get nationality in their own holy country?

Do they accept all as equal since the lost sermon of the holy prophet Muhammad PBUH had declared that no Arab is greater than the Ajami (non-Arab) but most respectable is the person who is the true good man?  Is this declaration being followed with true spirit; do Arabs respect non Arabs?

Instead of this, Arabs when angry are spitting in the faces of non Arabs, especially those who are labourers from South Asian Muslim countries. No one is able to get any justice against any Arab of such inhuman and un-Islamic acts of the rich Arabs.

European Muslim youths or any mullah have to realise that they are unnecessarily being hyper and irrational. Do they not know that up-to-date differences between Arabi and Ajmi have not been solved?  Do they not know that praying on the tomb of Muhammad (PBUH) is not allowed by the Saudi rulers and that they have created Special Forces with sticks to hit the hands of any Muslim trying to raise their hands for prayer at Medina?

Secondly, its being said that the Muslim youth are being attracted by the Muslim New World Order, this utopian new world order of equality that has never been advocated in the world before. Everyone knows about it and the world has observed such exercises following what George Orwell wrote in ‘Animal Farm’, that “all animals are equal but some are more equal.” Everyone knows that such inequality is being exercised in the Muslim world.

The point I am trying to make is that the powerful forces supporting ISIS must withdraw. Besides, one may not forget that the late president of the United States Ronald Regan and later George W. Bush were responsible, along with General Zia, of this existing mess and were founders of the Mujahideen, later turning into Al-Qaeda and the Taliban – and eventually ISIS. Thus the fact that the consequences of the Iraq war, hanging Saddam Hussein and the huge drama of the Weapons of Mass Destructions have taken the lives of 5 million people, is an another issue to be discussed in detail.

Besides why is the international media not paying attention towards Turkey and its president Erdogan and his son who are involved in the filthy business oil from ISIS controlled areas?

We are currently observing that Muslim countries are not stopping the support of Madrasas – the manufacturing factories of militants. This is going on everywhere in allied countries of the war on terrorism. Why therefore is no one paying any attention to this?

Sattar Rind

Sattar Rind lives in Sindh, Pakistan. and is an Author with four books to his credit. three poetry and one on politics. As a Columnist he has written for a number of newspapers and magazines since 1991. Sattar can be contacted at the following email address: [email protected]