Paris bombings

[Drew Phipps]

I was listening to a talk show today on the radio that featured some scholars of Islam, and they unanimously agreed that ISIS is not, in fact, Muslim at all. ISIS apparently are heretics, following what these scholars referred to as the "First Heresy"; which, if I understood correctly, was the idea that Muslims could be "excommunicated" by their spiritual teachers, and severed from their religion if they didn't do this, or that, or whatever their teacher/leader wanted them to do. So this is the threat they pose to real Muslims, and the perceived danger involved in that threat is apparently great enough to convince people to act a certain way.

I also point out that Islam is replete with "heretical" factions, the Sunni and the Shi'a the most familiar, but there are also Sufi, and Wahabi, and Ismailis, and the Nizaris (who became known as the Assassins for their practice of imbibing hashish and then going on murderous rampages).

Perhaps we can assist the process of winning the propaganda battle, and helping Islam to correct these extremists, if we simply refuse to add the word "Muslim" when we refer to them on TV, the internet, and in political discourse, etc. If we continue to publicly identify ISIS with Muslims, we add to the possibility that real Muslims might self-identify with the terrorists.

PS: it was NPR radio, didn't catch the name of the show. Might have been this: http://keranews.org/post/muslims-condemn...-apostates

Ahem: Apparently the act of calling someone "apostate" or "heretical" might itself be forbidden. Sorry, if I gave offense, but you gotta call someone a bully before you can stand up to them..

Ha. France will start calling them "Daesh."