who have had to leave Baghdad and for
some, particularly the Christians, have
had to take shelter in Kurdistan.
Although it is being portrayed as a
sectarian affair, Maliki has not
necessarily marginalised the Sunnis in
his government as the Western powers
claim: not only do Sunnis hold senior
positions in his government but there is
also no correlation between
marginalisation of a minority group and
intervention of foreign terrorist groups
in a country's political affairs immigrant workers from South East Asia
and the Far East in Saudi Arabia have
been marginalised and treated like
second class citizens for decades yet
there are no outside influences from
terrorist groups or governments to
address this marginalisation. ISIS is not
in Iraq to redress the supposed
imbalance in the Maliki government as
the track record of the ISIS as portrayed
by them is one of hunting trophies in
the form of killing, maiming and
blowing up civilians as one can see in
their annual report**. The only reliable
opposition to the ISIS force may come in
the form of a pan Iranian-Iraqi Shi'a
force; this is a welcome possibility from
most commentators including the Ansar
of Imam Ahmad (a.s) as it may well
bring the long-awaited Khurasani army
that forms a coalition with the Imam
(a.s).
is coming after weeks and months of
human atrocities: after the displacement
of thousands of Syrian civilians who are
now living in refugee camps in Jordan,
after public beheadings and beating of
old and young in Syria.
If there is anything good to be taken
from recent news reports it is that ISIS
has polarised opinions: supporters of
Imam Ahmed (a.s) know with certainty
that these gangs are the prophesied
Sufyani forces of the end times and ISIS
unashamedly risks inciting hatred from
all level-headed religious and political
groups; the greater Muslim world has
been forced to deal with a phenomenon
which is the repeat of historic events
dating back to the early days of Islam,
the Muslim world is slowly waking up as
a result.
But how could ISIS regard its
behaviour as virtuous?
Needless to say, wherever the
opposition comes from to oppose ISIS, it
One can only posit that the inbuilt
mechanism which stops each human
being from carrying out inhumane acts
of violence has been completely erased
from the psyche of its combatants. To
regard ISIS as an organisation with any
deep philosophical values or allencompassing world view or belief
system is foolish, however, it is clear
that to engage with such barbarism
requires one who is either equally