The Monster Has Escaped the Laboratory
20th August 2014
The most recent atrocities committed by the Islamic State — notably, the beheading of an American journalist by an ISIS mujahid on video, as a warning to President Obama (see Fox News, CNN, and the Mail Online) — demonstrate that something unprecedented is at work in the Middle East. Not since the defeat of the Ottoman army in 1683 has barbarity of this magnitude gone unchecked in the region.
Actually, you’d have to go back farther than 1683, or even 1453, to find comparable events. During its entire suzerainty over Mesopotamia, the Ottoman Empire did not engage in the systematic demolition of Shiite mosques. But that is exactly what ISIS is doing, even as it massacres and enslaves Christians and Yezidis.
This is a moment of enormous historical import. The proclamation of a Caliphate by the Islamic State has electrified Islamic zealots all over the world, which is why the black flag of jihad is appearing now in so many places. ISIS is saying to the Ummah: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” And getting an enthusiastic response, based on all the demonstrators who have taken to the “Muslim street”.
August 20th, 2014 at 09:26
Nope. One need only return to the 19th century, and Mahdi to find recent examples of Islamic barbarity.