Al-Jolani brings “Proper Islam” to Syria
Late last year, Al-Jolani, the nice ISIS and still-Jihadi chap, granted an interview to CNN in which he not only portrayed himself as a reformed gentleman who had possibly made some mistakes (like joining and fighting for ISIS) in the past but has also moved past that now and just wants to “build infrastructures”.
Al-Jolani also stated that the problems people have with Sharia is because they have never seen it applied properly! He also promised that there will be freedoms for all in Syria, including the religious minorities in the region.
Now, colour me naïve, but at the time, I genuinely though that true peace and tranquillity will come from the proper Islam Al-Jolani was about to institute in Syria. After fourteen hundred years of Islam turning wherever it goes into a war zone and oppressing religious minorities since the time of Mohammed, I had high hopes for Al-Jolani’s Syria. It is not like religious minorities were oppressed in the Islam inspired Ottoman empire, or during the time of the rightly guided caliphs, it is not like the Quran says to kill the infidels wherever you find them! I thought Al-Jolani would be bringing the real Islam to Syria, the type even Muhammad did not preach. Of course I am being sarcastic here…
The next thing we heard is that Al-Jolani confirmed (in an Arabic interview) Christians would have to pay Jizyah when an Islamic caliphate is built, presumably in the New Syria. This of course is in line with Surah 9:29 which goes hand in hand with fighting the Jews and Christians. Does this not contradict his CNN interview where he promised us the new Syria will not discriminate against religious minorities?
Then, after that, we learnt that going forward, Syrian school children were going to be taught to “Defend Allah” rather than “Defend the nation”. This leads to the question, why in the world does Allah need to be defended? Is he so weak that he needs his tiny creatures on earth to go around defending him by killing people in his name? Again, colour me crazy, but it sounds like terrorism is going to be taught to the next generation of Syrian kids. The same nonsense that has been taught to people in Gaza will now be taught to Syrian kids who would be bred to “defend Allah”. I am sure we will be seeing nothing but peace loving citizens from Syria in the near future.
And then of course, we heard the breaking news yesterday of entire villages being massacred by the minions of Al-Jolani. Those on the receiving end of the massacre were the same minorities — Allawites and Christians — the same people Al-Jolani said will have liberty in the New Syria.
It does look like it is the same old Islam we are used to doesn’t it? And herein lies a couple of lessons, things we have seen over and over again but never seem to learn from.
First, Islam will never change. From Muhammad and his companions, to the Umayyad caliphate, to the Abbasid caliphate, to the Ottoman empire, to the Muslim majority countries and regions of the world today, blood — that of Christians and other Muslims of the wrong kind — always flows freely whenever there is any semblance of sharia. Oppression of religious minorities is part and parcel of Islam.
Secondly, the West needs to stop being stupid. They need to stop believing terrorists and terrorist organisations when they make promises. The same promises Al-Jolani made, we heard from the Taliban and surprise surprise they were not kept. Muhammad himself made promises and then broke them without a second thought once convenient (The treaty of Hudaibiya on the one end of the spectrum and his promise not to sleep with his slave girl again which Allah told him to break, on the other end.), why do we expect better from those who take following in his footsteps seriously?
Third, Islam is a religion that endorses deceit. The prophet Muhammad himself said,
“Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) called,: “War is deceit”.
(Sahih Bukhari Book 56 Hadith 236)
The Quran teaches Muslims to generally despise non-Muslims but be friendly to them if it is to their advantage and for reason of self preservation.
“The believers must not establish friendship with the unbelievers in preference to the faithful. Whoever does so has nothing to hope for from God unless he does it out of fear or taqiyah (pious dissimulation).”
(Surah 3:28)
Ibn Kathir commenting on this verse quotes a companion of Muhammad,
“ We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.’’
Is this any surprise from people following a god who brags over and over again that he is the best of deceivers?
In conclusion, we have no reason to believe Syria will be better under Al-Jolani. We have no reason to believe minorities will be protected and we have no reasons to think Al-Jolani has any intentions of keeping his word. Fourteen hundred years, millions of deaths and hundred of thousands of terror incidents later, we are still waiting for the true, peaceful sharia because we can be sure as heck Al-Jolani is not bringing it to Syria.
