The Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) is the newest extremist terrorist group that has captured our nation’s attention and injected cold fear into our society.
Due to the group’s affiliation with Islam, many individuals are condemning the religion. However, a large number of Muslim people detest ISIS’s actions.
“ISIS never reflected Islam and never will. These are extremist factions that don’t represent the whole Muslim community,” said Samha Siddiqui, a political science major at Lipscomb. “They don’t even make up one per-cent of the whole Muslim population, so there’s no way that we can say they do reflect Muslim opinions.”
Fellow political science major Akim Smith says that ISIS is simply using religious justifications to legitimize the torture, murder and slaughter of anyone (including fellow Muslims) that does not adhere to their specific beliefs for the purpose of gaining political ground.
“A lot of people say that ISIS is neither Islamic nor a state, but as a Muslim, I would say that it is Islamic and it is a state, but it doesn’t reflect Islam as a whole,” Smith said. “I want people to know that this is not a reflection of Islam as a whole, but it’s a reflection of a particular, small brand of Islam.”
Exercise science major Tahreem Fatima echoed the dangers of associating the ideology preached by ISIS with the ideology of the majority of the Muslim community.
“I believe that Islam values all life, so what ISIS and other extremists do is completely wrong,” Fatima said. “I hate everything ISIS stands for, and I realize how important it is to speak out against their ideology because people get the wrong perception of Islam and I don’t want that to reflect on me.”
As far as President Obama’s reaction to this terrorism crisis, Siddiqui expressed concerns about trying to eradicate something as abstract as a religious conviction using military force.
“Sending Special Forces or airstrikes is not going to reduce the problem. They may be able to reduce the size of the group, but an ideology like that doesn’t disappear. We know that from evidence,” Siddiqui said. “So, military action is sort of like a coping mechanism, but it’s not going to eradicate the problem completely.”
Regardless of the religion, Siddiqui says there are dangers in generalizing the ideals of one minority faction and assuming they apply to the entire religious following.
“I feel like every religious organization has some extremist factions in it, but I don’t think they should be allowed to speak for everybody else.”