Ships Passing In the Night

Secularism Does Not "Get It"

Joshua Keating is a staff writer at Slate focusing on international affairs. He wrote piece recently wondering why ISIS is so bent on provoking the United States.  In our view, the piece is not worth much consideration, at least on its own terms.  But, from another perspective, it provides powerful insight into the drone-like hive  mind of the West. 

Keating offers five reasons why ISIS appears deliberately to be provoking the US.  They are (in short)

1. They feel cornered.
2. They don't think the US will act.
3. They think this is working.
4. They are "upping the price" (for ransom monies on remaining hostages)
5. This was the plan all along.

What this on display in his analysis, however, is the mindset of a Western secularist.
  What the writer seems unable to grasp is the mindset, the perspective, of a serious, committed Islamic jihadist.  So wedded is the Western mind to its established religion of secularism that it pre-interprets all of reality accordingly.  So brainwashed has the Western hive-mind become that it struggles to conceive of any other reality from any other perspective of its own--even at the level of simplistic comprehension--and this despite the scouring effects of post-modernism over the past one hundred years. 

Islam is a diabolically constructed doppel-ganger of the Christian faith.  It has its own internal logic, based upon its fundamental religious precepts.  Part of its body of doctrine is an Islamic eschatology--its doctrine of the end times.  The world to come, it is believed, is a world dominated and ruled over by Islam--by Allah and Muhammad, his prophet.  That world--which necessarily involves world conquest and the subjugation of all unbelief--will come to pass as Allah descends to fight on behalf of his servants.  His faithful, fighting without any hint of deviation from the Koran, the hadith and Sharia law, will be honoured.  The more they place themselves in harm's way fighting a holy war, the more Allah will be provoked to come to help his faithful servants.

This is what ISIS adherents believe.  In this light, provocation of the USA or the Great Satan makes remarkably good sense.  The fact that in any full scale armed conflict with the United States would result in their utter defeat is not the point.  Because, by their lights, they are being faithful and holy jihadi warriors, to place themselves in such jeopardy will hasten the end times and the ultimate victory of Allah.  In this light, they are Islam's equivalent of the Divine Wind suicide pilots of Japan in WWII.

But such things are incomprehensible to the Borg-like mind of the Western secularist.  To attribute such beliefs and doctrines to ISIS leadership would be seen in the West as mockery, or derision, or holding ISIS  up to ridicule in public. It would mean not taking them seriously.  It would be treating them with contempt.  It would mean betrayal of secularist multi-culturalism.  But let's be clear--the only reason the Western mind would approach an analysis of ISIS tactics by excluding Islam from the outset is because the religion of secularism is so ingrained, so unquestioned, that to attribute any other perspective to another human being is tantamount to regarding them as superstitious, primitive idiots.  Which is about what the the average secularist thinks of Christian folk amongst them.  (Note well that the prevailing narrative about Christians in the West is that they are dumb and uneducated.)

Keating is trying to treat ISIS with respect.  His blindness to his own religious pre-commitments means he ends up treating them with contempt.  In warfare, the age-old maxim is "know your enemy".  But the secularist mind is so ingrained, so thoughtlessly adherent its inane group-speak, that it fails miserably to understand what jihadis are all about. 

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Postscript:

Some source material on the influence of Islamic eschatology upon current events in Syria and Iraq (or, the Levant).

1. Aberfoyle:

Abu Hamza also referred to the apocalyptic predictions of Islamic eschatology that are set in al-Shams (the land of the Levant, including Syria) involving the arrival of the Mahdi (the expected one), the return of the Nabi Issa (Prophet Jesus) and their battle on the day of resurrection with al-Dajjal (“the false Messiah,” roughly in the role of the Anti-Christ of Christian eschatology):

Jihad will continue to the Day of Judgment. The development of events on the land of Sham will bring what no one expected because the land of Sham is guaranteed by Allah Almighty and the angels are spreading their wings over al-Sham. This is not Afghanistan or Bosnia or Chechnya, this is the land of al-Sham, Issa, peace be upon him, will come down here, and al-Dajjal will come out here, it is the land of epics and the land of resurrection… [4]

The Muhajirin recently completed Operation Fatih in the southwestern part of Aleppo governorate, claiming to have seized seven apartment towers and two villages as well as T-72 tanks and an anti-aircraft gun. The group claims their victory brings them closer to the road connecting Aleppo with the south. 

2. CNSNews.com ISIS Publication Aims to Lure Recruits; Justifies Atrocities by Citing Mohammed

Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of Barnabas Fund and an expert on radical Islam, notes that Dabiq is mentioned in a hadith that prophesies an end-time battle in which Muslims will conquer Christians, en route to conquering the entire world.

“In Islamic eschatology, Jesus, whom Muslims call Isa, will descend via a minaret of the Great Mosque in Damascus, and from there he will lead his armies to victory,” Sookhdeo says.

“‘Victory’ means destroying every cross, killing every Jew and pagan, and either converting every Christian to Islam or killing them. This apocalyptic dimension is now shaping ISIS as it sees itself fighting an End Time battle.”