ISIS, the West: With God on their side

Geoffrey McDonald Correspondent
The terrorist attacks in Paris were immediately described by President Obama as “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.” This confirms the enemy image: they are not motivated by political objectives, but by violence for its own sake. They are against bonhomie and freedom, so they are pure evil and, in Obama’s words, “only understand the language of force.”

For its side, ISIS also creates an enemy image that justifies its violence. They say the West is attacking Islamic values and these need to be defended in the same way they are being attacked — by war.

The Islamic State’s moral order
Islamists have decided that all the wars being waged for control of the Middle East, all the conflicts which have destroyed one country after another and made survival impossible for millions of people, is an attack on their religion. They do not regard imperialism as economic plunder by political control, but an offense to the peaceful God-loving community of Islam and the righteous rule of Sharia.

Islamists do not distinguish between presidents and fans of Eagles of Death Metal because they blame the “West” for having collectively humiliated Muslims, so they all need to be punished. ISIS calls itself a “crusade for revenge” against the arrogance of the sinful West with its overwhelming power.

Obama denies that the Islamic State is a state, but in the areas of IS rule they are setting up all the institutions of a state: borders, money, taxes, and a people. It takes a lot of work to convince people that they are part of a nation and that this is the best thing to ever happen to them. This forming a people is similar to the way the French (or any nationality) see themselves as French because they are all under the same roof of a state authority. In the case of Islam, it is an imagined roof.

For the Islamic State, the people is the ummah, the world community of believers. They are sparing no effort inviting the whole world of Islam to join their cause with all their social media propaganda. They recognize that members of the ummah are divided by the imperialist division of the world into states, but they form a united people by their adherence to Islam. Shiites, however, are regarded as traitors to the cause, whereas Christians are not because they never joined the cause. Converting to Islam may be voluntary, but since obedience to God’s will is a commitment of loyalty, if you stray from the fold, it is not just changing your mind but treachery. It’s a one-way voluntary street: you can join but you can’t leave.

The Islamic State is waging an unending war, but they have some definition of victory: all Muslims can live a righteous life under Islamic rule as they determine it. In a widely quoted speech after the conquest of Mosul, Al Baghdadi preached that this earthly life is not the real one and real life begins after death. Of course, he isn’t the first to preach that his followers must face the enemy willing to die. In this too, there is no difference between IS and any other country in regard to its armed forces.

The starting point of the Islamists is that the West has ruined the Islamic world, but they never talk about a new internal economic life for their subjects. They just take economic life as they find it, ignoring the whole question of dependency on the west for the use of the world market to sell oil. ISIS has no qualms about taking over oil depots and smuggling oil to make money. But because the Koran is not an economic manual and says nothing about property or the reproduction of society, it never occurs to them that you have to eat and drink before you can live a moral life. In other words: they promise their followers more war and poverty, but in a morally exalted version.

The free West
When western leaders make an image of the Islamist enemy, they also never say the real thing they are opposing: ISIS is interfering in our region which we need so that our capitalists have a chance to make money. Western leaders know damn well they are not fighting for a free press, rock ‘n’ roll, or schools for girls. ISIS is creating a state that is a political challenge to their control. The west’s appeal to values is parallel to the way ISIS appeals to religion: we are all about freedom, the rule of law, the rights of man. This is deliberately making up a reason of state. It’s not so fundamental because these are the first things to go whenever the state feels itself in danger.

There was always something absurd about the elevation of Charlie Hebdo to a pan-western icon. It sounds funny if you say it directly: the enlightened western community of values is defined by the right to insult Islam. Of course, nobody says it like that. Instead they say: “I am defending their right to say something I don’t stand for.”

This shows the distance one must take from one’s own interest in order to participate in the public sphere.

It may be that most French people think Charlie Hebdo went too far, disagree with it, or would be happy if it went out of business. But a free press is one of the crowning points of democracy, and in a free democracy you can say whatever you want as long as you don’t put it into practice; you can criticise as long as there is no consequence. Of course, they don’t say it that way.

Instead they say: this proves how noble and good we are that we allow people to have opinions. It’s an amazing admission: we allow opinions as long as you don’t take them seriously and act on them. — Counterpunch.