The Evil that is Islamic State

Photo: AFP

On February 11, 2015, Asia News carried the news that the number of foreign militants arriving in Iraq and Syria via Turkey to join the jihad has increased at an “unprecedented” rate. Worldwide more than twenty thousand men and women have supposedly joined the ranks of the Islamic State or other extremist groups.

 

“Unprecedented” meaning that the number “exceeds” those who have gone to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia or other hotspots in the last 20 years. And these jihadists “do not fit into any stereotype”.

 

According to US intelligence, the volunteers come from more than 90 countries and, of these, at least 3,400 are from the West – this includes 150 Americans. 

Malaysia too are not spared from this phenomenon. The Malaysian Insider (January 22, 2015) cited the Home Minister as reporting that 67 Malaysians are known to have already gone there and that five had been killed fighting for the cause. Another 120 people with suspected IS links or sympathies have been detained even before they could leave the country.

 

And according to the National Counter-Terrorism Center, IS militias attract a steady stream of fighters thanks to the optimal use of propaganda on the Internet, particularly social media as well as well-produced videos and films, made in different languages, and these are accentuated by blood-soaked images of gory brutality and grisly beheadings.

 

But be warned – the battlefield is not just Iraq and Syria. It has already spread to Egypt and Libya. And it will infect other countries too.

 

Expect to see a world in turmoil because IS will unleash their terrorism in our very midst. No country is immune, no city is safe. Sydney, Paris and Copenhagen are only the beginning.

 

For sure, the IS ideology will bring mass murder to our doorstep. These ruthless killers are ever ready to sacrifice themselves in the name of their brand of Islam –  Princeton's Bernard Haykel describes it as "a kind of untamed Wahhabism”.

In case you are still ignorant, IS adopts the Wahhabi tradition that embraces the killing of those deemed unbelievers as essential to purifying the community of the faithful. And their acquiescence to this interpretation of Islam as being the religion of the sword means violence is just a heartbeat away.

 

On Friday, Taman Indrahana Toastmasters Club member LeAnn Tang hosted a ‘lou sang’ dinner – my second this year –  at the Dynasty Dragon Seafood Restaurant in PJ’s SStwo Mall. Check out what I had:

 

 

The photos below illustrate the collective merriment we experienced that evening.