Qasim Rashid, lawyer, speaker and best-selling author of "Extremist" revealed the truth about ISIS, their sudden rise, destructive 'non-Islamic' ideology and their allies, giving analytical solutions to prevent what he calls a 'virus' from spreading. His report was published in The Huffington Post this April. Rashid started the report by describing ISIS' ideology: "Some claim ISIS is merely an informed, practical, or even educated manifestation of Islamic doctrine. This simplistic answer, however, is as incorrect as it is dangerous." "It is important we recognize that ISIS ideology is anything but Islamic", he added. He accentuated his point by referencing a classified report on radicalization published by MI5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5) in 2008: "Far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practice their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could be regarded as religious novices." MI5 analysts noted the disproportionate number of converts who join militant groups and the general high propensity for "drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes," concluding that "a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalization." Rashid stated that Muslims condemned pornography, however, Osama bin Laden, Anwar Al Alwaki, the 9/11 terrorists, and of course ISIS are porn obsessed radicals, according to him. "The hypocrisy such radicals exemplify is only confusing when we insist on calling ISIS Islamic. When we recognize ISIS is un-Islamic, and for the virus it is, the picture becomes much clearer. That is, whether it means stealing, abducting, raping, prostituting, or killing, ISIS will simply do anything it has to do to survive and spread," Rashid said. He further linked the rise of ISIS to Al-Qaeda, giving evidence that it was formed after Iraq's invasion with the blessing of USA and Israel, quoting president Obama as saying "ISIL is a direct outgrowth of al Qaeda in Iraq which grew out of our invasion which is an example of unintended consequences which is why we should generally aim before we shoot." Rashid also confirmed that the ISIS 'virus' was planted by the CIA in the 80s, using books promoting radicalization and terrorism, creating and training radicals to fight for the U.S. in their Proxy wars. In 2002, the U.S. government, after previously funding and supporting Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, participated in the War against him, leading a coalition of 36 nations to bomb and destroy a dictator they had contributed to build and killing thousands of civilians in the process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advocated the illegal invasion of Iraq saying "if you take out Saddam's Regime, I guarantee you it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region." ISIS is tragically one such "enormous positive reverberation." ISIS's origins stretch decades prior to Western interventionism, when Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi made his speech at Mosul's Great Mosque declaring the creation of an Islamic State and himself as its caliph. He quoted Aboul A'la Maududi - the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in 1941 and originator of the term 'Islamic State', who holds a high school diploma, with no academic training on Islam, Qur'anic hermeneutics, hadith interpretation, or Islamic history. "Those who promote the myth that ISIS is spreading internationally due to its education of Islam - not its ignorance of Islam - ignorantly empower ISIS while disenfranchising and demonizing the world's billions of Muslims who categorically condemn ISIS." Rashid explained. "ISIS is implementing 'a dystopian fantasy by Maududi ', the uneducated man, rather than the 'Pure version of Islam", he added. He also linked the role of some Muslim governments in empowering ISIS, by mimicking the Maududian and ISIS ideology, pointing out that despotic regimes, ongoing economic inequalities, and social injustices were reasons behind the Arab Spring uprisings, where millions of Muslims in the MENA region were languishing for leadership. "So this is the inconvenient truth we must recognize: ISIS exists due to both unjust Western imperialism, and unjust Muslim majority governments." Rashid stated. In the same report, Rashid quoted Mirza Masroor Ahmad, worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Khalifa of the world's largest Islamic organization who offered one solution to stop ISIS. He requested major powers to help governments build relationships with rebels based on mutual trust, and form a joint-strategy to stop the spread of extremist ideologies, rather than opposing local governments by giving military training and weapons to the local rebels, stating that such policies can only further inflame the existing turmoil and tensions in those countries. The West and Muslim majority nations should look past mere economic interests in oil and land and focus instead on implementing justice and international law, and recognize ISIS as an extremist organization - not Islam. "We will stop ISIS once Western and Muslim leaders take personal ownership based on absolute justice - and that's the truth." Rashid concluded.
