This week America was horrified to learn that ISIS had captured several Christian Assyrian villages in Syria and taken hundreds of Christians into captivity. If recent history is a guide, their fate is bleak. The women will likely be turned into slaves for ISIS warriors and men will be either converted to Sunni Islam or killed.
While utterly horrific, it is important to understand that this behavior by ISIS is rational and supported by historical precedents. Unlike Osama Bin Laden, the ISIS movement is at heart & in its mission a conquering movement, a movement modeled after the victorious Sunni conquerors of the past 1,400 years. We discussed this in detail back on August 23, 2014 in our article ISIS – a Histrio-Strategic View of What Follows.
There is a difference between ad hoc terrorist attacks by Muslim terrorists and what ISIS is doing. Killing innocent civilians in a shopping mall or via random attacks is condemned by the majority of Sunni Muslims in the world. At least we believe so. But that condemnation does not extend to ISIS forcibly converting Christian men and giving Christian women as wives, concubines or slaves to Muslim warriors. Because that behavior is historically consistent and supported at least in principle by a large number of Muslims across the world.
This is the core principle of “pak” or religious purity. The concept is that Muslim lands must made “pak” or “pure” by cleansing the lands of impure non-believers. What is happening in ISIS-controlled provinces is a centuries-old, socially accepted process. In an amoral & purely strategic sense, you have to applaud this process. This “purification” process is what has kept captured lands as Muslim properties over the past 1,400 years. Because religious purification eliminates minorities that may rebel in the future and inculcating the passion of being a conquering Muslim makes the converted into even more passionate followers of the conqueror’s mission.
This is what ISIS has embarked on in Syria & Iraq. As a result, “Piece by piece, Middle Eastern Christianity is being shattered’ in the words of Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute. She adds “ISIS has religious objectives, that its actions are not simply random acts of “extreme violence,” and that ISIS aims to make the region – and beyond– pure for Islam.” (emphasis ours).
Frankly, Ms. Shea doesn’t get the full picture. There is no difference between religious & strategic objectives in Islamic philosophy. They are mutually supportive and integrated. In fact, religious objectives are defined to maximize strategic success and strategic objectives are established to ensure religious dominance. The concept of “pak” is central to this integration.
You don’t have to go way back to medieval history to see this practiced in broad daylight in front of the entire world. Look at the past 67 years. In 1947, Britain partitioned the Indian Subcontinent into India & a breakaway entity named Pak-i-Stan. Idiotic & British-obedient Indian politicians accepted this partition even over the objections & protests of Mahatma Gandhi.
We have seen what happens when a regime adopts the “pak” principle. They forcibly convert them to Sunni Islam, coerce them into leaving their “pak” land or kill them. And they seize the women and force them into “marriages” to “pak” Sunni Muslims. This has been the history of the regime the world calls Pak-i-Stan.
Today, there is outrage in America about capture of a couple of hundred Christians. In contrast, millions of Buddhists, Hindus & Sikhs have suffered in Pak-i-Stan what Christians have now begun suffering under ISIS. Where has been the outrage in the American media about these crimes against humanity of Pak-i-Stan over the past 67 years? Forget about outrage. The American media & the American establishment has been vociferous in praising that evil regime as America’s critical ally.
The reality is that a Religious Caste System is pervasive throughout the American media, the concept that there is a hierarchy of religions with Christianity/Judaism at the top, Islam in the middle and Asian Religions at the bottom; the concept that it is OK for higher ranking religions to commit atrocities against lower ranking religions but it is horrific for lower ranking religions to commit atrocities against higher ranking religions. It is a perfect Religious Caste System that accepts Muslims cleansing Buddhists out of Bangladesh but intensely condemns Buddhists reciprocating against Muslims in Myanmar.
It is high time the American Establishment rejects the “pak” concept that is central to behavior of Muslim regimes. It is this religio-strategic concept that has been practiced by Pak-i-Stan against Asian religions over the past 67 years and now by ISIS against Christianity.
This is why we have banished the horrific Pak-i-Stan term from our vocabulary and we now urge American media to ban this term. They cannot keep accepting the “pak” term in Asia and then complain about the practice of the same “pak” concept in the Middle East. Call it Islamabad regime or even “Islamistan” but don’t accept the term “pak-i-stan”. This is a term that is even more heinous than the Nazi master race concept. Remember a master race needs servant races but a “pak” or “pure” regime is compelled by definition to cleanse out impure religions.
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Your analysis is fully supported by Koran and Hadith. Unfortunately, most westerners (people/politicians), Hindus and non-Islamic people in the world are either ignorant of the Islamic scriptures or are scared of acknowledging the true version of Islam or want to be politically correct.
In any case, in the current scenario the future of the world looks pretty bleak. It seems that people all over world are willing to commit sucide in the worldwide genocide likely to happen in the not too distant future.