More shocking is the absence of a viable solution to defeat the travesty of this unfolding situation.
Ziad Majed, in his
blog post says, "ISIS is the offspring of more than one father, and the product of more than one longstanding and widespread sickness."
According to Majed, the ISIS genesis comes from six causes:
1. Decades of despotism in most of the Arab world
2. The American invasion of Iraq in 2003
3. Iranian regional meddling
4. The growth of Saudi Salafism
5. The idea that seventh-century religious ideas can deal with modern ills
6. An atmosphere of violence
Whatever the
causes ascribed to the obnoxious events unfolding in parts of Syria and Iraq, undoubtedly the Islamic State is where there Islamic world’s deep-seated symptoms have come to roost.
Most of the Middle East now resembles a seething cauldron of violence where vested power groups have used religion for their own political ends and spread the seed of intolerance and hate among the population.
In this light, the ISIS Frankenstein is the extreme manifestation of the Islamic world’s inability to rationally interpret and reform itself.
Amir Ahmad Nasr in his
blog says, “ISIS isn’t an expression of Islam per se as much as it is an expression of Islam through a medieval, anti-modern worldview, influenced and encouraged by the political dynamics and regional rivalries of today.”
While the rest of the Western world is rightfully outraged at the
beheading of James Foley and Steven Sotloff by ISIS, it continues to ignore the public executions by beheading allowed by their most favored Arab ally — Saudi Arabia — for decades. Confounding!
For now the ISIS fanatics are on the winning side because the world seems to be lacking a coherent, unified policy to deal with the mess they have made of Middle East. Until the world gets its act together, more such horrors will continue. Sotloff's beheading won't be the last.
