THE ISLAMIC STATE AND RELIGION by Jim Redwine

Gavel Gamut

By Jim Redwine

(Week of 06 April 2015)

THE ISLAMIC STATE AND RELIGION

In a March 2015 article in The Atlantic, Graeme Wood examines ISIS’s goals. He concludes the prime motivation is religion, a slavish devotion to a literal reading of the Quran and a desire to bring about The Apocalypse. That’s right, the same apocalypse sought by some fundamentalist Christians who slavishly support Israel in hopes of bringing Jesus back. That’s right, the same Jesus Islam believes is just below Mohammad and the same Jesus, according to Graeme Wood’s article, ISIS hopes to bring back to rule in Jerusalem. Confusing enough?

Are these people who hate each other unwittingly all on the same side? Are they all convinced they are the only true believers even though other people reading a different version of the same book believe much as they do about the End of Days?

Muslims, Christians and Jews claim Abraham as their common religious ancestor. Christians believe Jesus is the son of God, at least their god. Muslims believe Jesus was a great prophet but not a god. Many Jews do not see Jesus as either god or prophet.

Fundamentalist Islamists, such as ISIS, believe biblical punishments such as beheading, crucifixion and stoning are demanded by God. Hebrews in Jesus’s time held similar beliefs. One of Jesus’s most oft’ repeated sayings is, “Let him without sin cast the first stone”.

Each of three religions “Of the Book” is fractured into numerous splinter groups, each of whom asserts its interpretation of the Torah, the Quran or the Bible is the only way. I am reminded of my childhood where our First Christian (Disciples of Christ) church grew out of the contentious Campbellite tradition and now has formed a friendly alliance with Presbyterians.

The real danger is not religion or even a strongly held belief in a particular doctrine. The real danger is the unshakable faith that a particular idea is the only idea acceptable. Then real harm comes from the belief that anyone whose religion differs from ours is an apostate and apostates must be killed. This, according to Graeme Wood, is exactly what motivates ISIS.