Biden's ineffective speech and Muslim methods of violence

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Aug 27, 2021 at 02:57

Dear Dr Pipes, Those of us who got an opportunity to hear President Biden's speech in response to the ISIS attack in Kabul will agree that Biden's speech was ineffective and uninspiring. Biden used a very old cliche to threaten ISIS. He said that USA will find the perpetrators of the terrorist attack and destroy them and will not let them get away with these murders. This response by American presidents to Islamic violence is more stale than a five week old bread sitting on the kitchen counter. But this was not the only fault of Biden's speech; Biden showed tremendous ignorance about the enemy and its methods.

If USA spends another tens of billions of dollars and another decade to find these killers, that is exactly what ISIS wants. We already know that Muslim life has no value for ISIS. So, if USA spends money and time in finding these killers and destroys them, that is a favorable outcome for ISIS. ISIS' methods of killing are cheap. Unlike the USA, ISIS does not have to spend money or time to find the enemy to kill. It can kill any one because almost everyone is the enemy. So threatening ISIS with this cliche is ineffective, and, sadly, makes Biden a laughing stock. Biden tried to differentiate between Talebans and ISIS-K. Biden should know that the K in ISIS-K is just the alphabet of the month. ISIS, ISIS-K, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the Taleban are the same nameless entity that keeps rising with different names in different geographies at different times.

In my above letter (Did Muslims literally follow Muhmmad's example?), I hypothesized that deranged Muslims of violent Islamic groups might actuallly be following the examples set by Muhammad. Muhammad's life history, the Islamic doctrine as espoused in the Quran clearly outline the methods followed by ISIS. Quran says very clearly that Muslims should attack and kill those who oppose Islam or Muhammad whereever they can find them. There are not many if or buts in this instruction. There are uncanny similarities in some of the recent Islamic phraseology anf the Banu Quraaysh incidence of Muhammad's time. A fundamentalist Muslim preacher in India, for example, praised the Taleban for providing "safe passage" to people to leave Kabul. "Safe passage" was exactly what Muhammad had provided to some members of Banu Quraish tribe after the others were massacred.

We all know that good Muslims do not believe in any of these practices. Only deranged bad Muslims do. But Islam has created a straight jacket around itself an escape from which is very difficult for Muslim believers. First the insistence that Muhammad is the last prophet and Quran is the only correct word of God, takes away the freedom to think critically from the Muslims. Adding to that the fact that the Quran must be literally followed and cannot be interpreted, completes the straoght jacket in which there is no room for free thought.

But this straight jacket also precisely defines what good Muslims need to do to distance themselves from the bad ones. They must admit that Quran can be selectively interpreted and what is not good in it can be ignored. And, they must admit that Quran is not the only source of the truth. Good values have many versions and they are not confined in Quran alone.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".