ISIS Formulation Orientation and Destination

In the late 1980s, al-Zarqawi went to Afghanistan to join the Mujahideen fighting the invasion of Soviet troops. In 1989, the Soviets were already beginning to leave. Instead of fighting, he became a reporter for an Islamist newsletter and returned home to Jordan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post

In Jordan, he was arrested for guns and explosives found in his home. He was sent to prison in 1992, and after four years in jail, he was out on a national amnesty given to the prisoners by the late King of Jordan. According to Jordanian officials and his acquaintances, al-Zarqawi developed a reputation for his ‘radical beliefs.’ He considered all Arab governments apostates and spoke out about ousting the king of Jordan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi#cite_ref-frontline2006_15-1

Jund al-Sham, Soldiers of the Levant

Between 1989 and 1992, al-Zarqawi helped start the local militant group Jund al-Sham in Jordan. The group perpetrated bomb attacks since the beginning of 2004 in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The Syrian Army fought this organization from 2005 until 2014. See (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jund_al-Sham) for details.

Furthermore, al-Zarqawi is thought to be responsible for the 2005 bombing of three hotels in Amman, Jordan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Amman_bombings). One of these bombings victims was Moustapha al-Akkad, a filmmaker and director of the feature film “The Messenger,” in 1977. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngF1SNEx5tA)

“The Messenger” significantly changed the understanding of Islam and its Messenger, Prophet Muhammad. At the time of his death, he produced an $80 million movie featuring Sean Connery about Saladin and the Crusades, for which he already had the script and would be filmed in Jordan. The feature film on Saladin would further serve Islam and Muslims’ promotion, especially in the West. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moustapha_Akkad

See our article, Saladin: A Benevolent Man, Respected by Muslims and Christians.

Al-Tawhid wal-Jihad Group

r After he conflicted with Osama bin Laden in 1999 in Afghanistan, al-Zarqawi entered Iraq and formed the militant al-Tawhid wal-Jihad group in 2001 in northeastern Iraq. Al-Tawhid wal-Jihad organization, the root of ISIS, was the mother organization of several al-Qaida jihadi groups. Ansar al-Islam and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement were among them.

Note: The group’s name al-Tawhid (Oneness of Allah), wa al-Jihad, echoes the Wahhabi/Salafi adherents’ all-out cry against most other Muslims. All other Muslims are Mushriks, heretics–graves and saints worshippers; deviant Sufis and innovators, and the refused Shia; all Muslim governmental systems and public leaders, apostates. These are but a few of a host of disbelief allegations.

These accusations against ‘heretic Muslims’ filtrate into congregational and ceremonial speech attendances, mainly among the Salafi/Wahhabis; negativism, and dreadful accusations of bigotry, hate, and even verbal attacks and cursing; in contrast, most mainstream Muslim religious leaders’ speeches are warm and encouraging. They promote character, faith, taqwa (righteousness), closeness to Allah, humbleness, the love of Prophet Muhammad, and care for all human beings. Also addressed are the gracious and humane traits of Islam and Prophet Muhammad, wisdom, improving the quality of life, and so many other constructive and amiable Islamic principles.

The name al-Tawhid wal-Jihad efficiently drew many Salafi/Wahhabi adherents from other countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. As we will learn later, immigration to the ‘land of faith’ is a requirement of the Wahhabi principle of the Islamic State.

After Baghdad fell to the American forces in April 2003, al-Zarqawi drew many high-ranking officers from the defeated Iraqi Army and extensively educated them in Wahhabism’s creed. (Ibrahim, pg 184)

In 2004 al-Zarqawi joined al-Qaeda and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. After this, al-Tawhid wal-Jihad became known as Tanzim Qaidat wal-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (Al Qaeda in the Country of the Two Rivers), also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), and alternatively, Islamic State of Iraq, ISI. As a result, Al-Zarqawi was named “Emir (Prince) of Al Qaeda in the Country of the Two Rivers.”

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/ResearchNote_20_Zelin.pdf

Igniting the Iraqi Civil War

By 2004, al-Zarqawi directed several suicidal operations against the American forces and the Shia civilians in Baghdad, Karbala, and Khathimiah. (Ibrahim, pg 186)

Realizing his group’s inability to face the far more advanced American forces and attain victory, al-Zarqawi turned the war against his people. On February 12, 2004, he wrote a letter to Osama bin Laden explaining his new plans and hoping to consent to them.

In this letter, he revealed a proposal to inflame a vicious civil war to make the region explode. The civil war shall return the Wahhabi/Salafis, whose deteriorating condition “is worse than the orphans,” into control and “rouse up the Sunnis against the Shia, the offspring of Saba’.” Referring to Abdullah Ibn Saba’, who some believe started the Shia movement.

In the letter, al-Zarqawi admitted that his previous attacks on the Shia were provocations to “wake up the Sunnis from their deep sleep.”

Realizing that his differences with bin Laden and his orders’ refusal could turn against him, al-Zarqawi started a campaign to gain supporters, built a strong base, and operated independently.

Being away in Afghanistan, Bin Laden’s control of al-Zarqawi diminished, and his place in this theater grew dimmer while al-Zarqawi’s leadership continued to dominate. In the end, al-Zarqawi refused his leader’s order not to ignite the civil war in Iraq. (Ibrahim)

It is important to state that al-Zarqawi’s provocations and carnage are considered a high offense in Islam. Therefore, his act is classified as corruption on earth.’ The Qur’an states:

Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they are killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they are exiled from the Land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment, Qur’an 5:33

Road ambushes and murder, explosions in crowded marketplaces, planes and trains, and other places crowded with people, attacking and slaying communities at peace, and other similar acts of bloodshed and destruction, are all considered ‘corruption on earth’ acts.

Sad and painful to see a person with no Islamic education, not even a High School diploma, falsify the vast majority of world Muslims and indict them for being apostates. Then turn against them in a mass slaying of actions and on the wide-scale destruction of community property and infrastructure, while such peaceful are at peace? In a holistic extremity, do these adherents consider their religious leaders and their verdicts, even if these decisions violate many of the Qur’an verses and the principles of Islam?

The reader is invited to read these articles to get the jest of Islam’s peaceful message and the extent of violations ISIS is committing:

–Islam and Christianity: Two Faiths, One God,

–The Abrahamic Religions: Common Roots and Shared Responsibilities,

–Qur’anic Verses Misinterpreted as Teaching Violence, The Peaceful Fabric of Islam,

–The Basic Policy of Islam Regarding Non-Muslims: Peace or War?

In the letter’s last statement, al-Zarqawi named his Shia and Kurds targets “Tawa’if al-Riddah,” legitimizing the slaying of Muslim Shia and Kurds as the tribes of apostasy. See the “The Apostate Refutation” discussion below to understand it and its misusage better.

No Slaying on Suspicion

Prophet Muhammad prevented his companions from killing anyone during a battle who abstained from fighting, claiming Islam, even if their claim was a lie. When Usamah ibn Zayd told the Prophet about killing someone on the battlefield, even though the victim proclaimed Islam, the Prophet was very angry at Usamah. He responded with the question: Did you open his heart [to discover that what he said was a lie?].” The companion said: How could I read his heart, oh messenger of God? The Prophet replied: “You did not believe what he said, and you do not know how to read his heart, then why did you kill him?

How could al-Zarqawi, who claims to be a Muslim, judge an entire community, a crowded marketplace, a funeral procession, or the passengers on a plane to be disbelievers, and slay all with explosives or suicide bombings, and then attribute such evil mass-murdering acts to Islam?

Besides, labeling someone or a group of disbelievers does not give a Muslim the right to kill. At the state level, permission to fight is only offered in return for aggression or injustices. What aggressions or injustices did innocent people commit to being murdered in public places and towns? What had they done against Islam to be slain and have their properties destroyed? For more information on this topic, please see our article, Foreign Policy of Islam Toward non-Muslims: Peace or War. Also, see the “Apostasy” discussion below for more on this topic.

Abu Ayyub al-Masri (1968-2010)

After al-Zarqawi’s death in April 2006, Abu Ayyub al-Masri (real name: Abdul Munim Izi-edin Ali al-Badawi) was appointed leader of ISIS, then al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) on June 12, 2006. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ayyub_al-Masri

Abu Ayyub al-Masri was born in Egypt in 1968. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood and was a personal assistant to Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1982. Al-Masri went to bin Laden’s al-Farouk camp in Afghanistan in 1999, where he became an expert in explosives. Al-Masri’s Islamic education exposure is not just Salafi/Wahhabi but includes the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt’s political doctrine. Al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (ISIS’s third leader) were killed during a raid on al-Masri’s house on April 18, 2010.

More Insight into the Nature of ISIS’s Two Leaders

Al-Masri’s Encounter with al-Zarqawi, Al-Mansour**, in his work, “The Islamic State Between Reality and Illusion,” spoke of the excessiveness of the leaders of al-Qaeda, including al-Masri and al-Zarqawi. He stated that al-Masri told him a story he had encountered with al-Zarqawi over an Iraqi police officer’s killing. Al-Mansour says: Al-Masri reports: ‘Al-Zarqawi conferred that the sign of apostate, kufr, on a person [police] is the blue dress [the Iraqi police uniform]. This statement was his answer down to the letter, al-Masri maintained.’ I (al-Masri) said to him, just for the sake of argument, and in the science of Fiqh, it is permissible to make an assumption, even if it never happens. For example, suppose a policeman guards a female school in a Sunni area where abductions occur frequently. The policeman does nothing else other than this guard function.

Suppose a layman took such a fatwa verdict [as yours] from someone known to be ‘trusted by the common people as a learned one,’ what do you say to that? He replied, may God bless his soul: ‘He is an apostate, just because of the blue dress, and if he were to be asked to fight the Mujahidin and aid the Crusaders, he would do it.’ I said: But it is not permissible to accuse a person of kufr based on a gesture. I was speaking to him about an accusation in a specific case, not about blaming a whole community in kufr.”

In Islam, decisions based on conjecture are rejected, even for an unimportant matter. Nevertheless, a choice for a severe issue, such as taking people’s souls. Is al-Zarqawi’s education or those who gave him the fatwa Islamic or Salafi/Wahhabi creed education?

Al-Mansour, reports other forms of takfir (accusing others of heresy) that ISIS practices include:

Groups of their own, Salafi jihadists, students and disseminators of faith, those who describe ISIS as excessive and violent, those who participate in elections, the candidates in the election, government positions, and those who participate in the justice systems.

**Al-Mansour, (Abu Abdillah al-Mansour al-Eassawi), Head of the Mujahideen Army, was an Iraqi Salafi. He was the teacher of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before his detainment in 2005. He wrote a book called: “The Islamic State Between Reality and Illusion, 2014.” He also wrote another book called: Mad al-Ayadi li-Bay’at al-Baghdadi, “Extending the Hands for Allegiance to the Baghdadi” Al-Mansour, in his writings, approves of the ISIS Salafi/Wahhabi application of Sharia Law, but he criticized ISIS in five points:

1. Wrong thinking.
2. Murdering of people, but without due process.
3. Lying.
4. Ignorance.
5. No giving consideration of the Islamic rules of Jihad.

ISIS Attacks Iraqi Election Personnel and Buildings

ISIS gunned down election officials, including 50 women in Iraq. The 300 people killed worked for the Iraqi Electoral Commission in Mosul. It has called on the UN to help ‘stop the slaughter and crimes against Iraqi people. At least 50 were women, a spokesman for a rival rebel group claimed https://apoteketgenerisk.com/. ISIS has executed 2,070 in and around Mosul since seizing it in June 2014. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3193498/300-murdered-ISIS-firing-squad-Terror-group-gunned-election-officials-including-50-women-Iraq.html

 

Al-Masri’s Wives

Al-Masri could have been married to two wives simultaneously: an Egyptian and a Yamani.

The Account of the First Wife

When al-Masri was appointed as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) after al-Zarqawi’s death in 2006, his picture was shown on television and broadcast media networks. The first to recognize his image was his Egyptian wife, Huda Ahmad El-Sayyd. The “Voice of the Ummah” magazine of Egypt, on July 17, 2006, reported that Huda Ahmad El-Sayyd was shocked when she saw a picture of her husband on the television screen as al-Qaeda In Iraq’s new leader. She said, “He has been detained for seven years in Egypt for what they call terrorism. So how could he be in Iraq?” She maintained:” Why my husband in particular, and how did America get his picture?”

The Account of the Second Wife

When the Iraqi forces stormed and entered the al-Masri house on April 19, 2010, they found four dead male bodies and two women alive. One of the women, Hasna, a native of Yemen, claimed to be al-Masri’s wife. After being arrested, she testified that her husband (Al-Masri) “entered Yemen using a fake passport under Yussef Haddad Labib and taught in village schools. He and I got married in Sanaa in 1998 and had three children. He was very strict and secretive. I found out that he was ‘Abu Ayyub al-Masri’ only after the death of Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi.”

Hasna further detailed, “I used to have a small radio to listen to the news, and I asked my husband about the reasoning for killing people and children, but I got no answer.” She noted, “He had accused me of being an enemy of the Islamic State of Iraq because I asked him, where is the Islamic State of Iraq you speak of, and we live in the desert?”

Although al-Masri was less takfiri than al-Zarqawi, he does believe that all governments and their systems are apostates, the Muslim Brotherhoods Party’s dominant political principle. See the “Apostate” Section below.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (1959-2010)

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (Hamid Dawood al-Zawi) was a security officer in the Iraqi Army before the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 1985 he embraced the Salafi/Wahhabi creed and became one of its propagators. He was the Imam of Assaf Mosque, where he conducted lectures on “Salafism Doctrine.” He attracted many youths and founded the Manssurah (Victorious) Army. Some of the young became prominent leaders of the al-Qaeda in Iraq group.

In 2004 he joined al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaeda in Iraq group. He became the Mujahideen Shura Council leader (translated as “Consultative Council of Mujahedeen,” an umbrella organization composed of eight groups that oppose the United States military presence in Iraq. He drafted the “Aqeedatu al-Dawlah,” the “Belief and Constitutionality Base for the State [of Islam], ISI.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Omar_al-Baghdadi

His condition of “Aqeedatu al-Dawlah,” the State’s belief, is based on “Menhaj as-Salaf as-Saleh,” by the way and doctrine of the Salafi/Wahhabi creed. He also demanded that no member of the Education Committee be admitted to it unless he adheres to “as-Salaf as-Saleh,” a dominant phrase implying the following of the Salafi/Wahhabi creed.

As the ISI organization grew more substantial, so did that of the previous Abu Omar al-Baghdadi position. He now appoints future ISI leaders to various branches and regions. No one person is designated to a post without his approval.

By April 19, 2007, al-Qaeda in Iraq, with all its consolidated teams, became the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was appointed its new leader. ISI’s previous leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was reduced to the Head (emir) of the Consultative Council of Mujahedeen. (Ibrahim, pg 118)

On April 18, 2010, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was killed along with Abu Ayyub al-Masri, as the Iraqi forces rocketed al-Masri’s home near Tikrit, Iraq. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Omar_al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (1971- present)

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri) of Samarra, Iraq, is the self-proclaimed caliph of ISIS today. He claims to be a decedent of the Hashimi tribe (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Hashimi al-Qurashi). Note: The Hashimi clan is the clan of Prophet Muhammad. His father was one of the Salafi doctrine promoters. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a Sadam University of Islamic Studies graduate in Baghdad. Both of his research papers were on the science of reading the Qur’an. He was the Imam of the Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal in Samarra for a long time. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal founded the Fiqh School of Hanbali, which the Salafi/Wahhabi adherents claim to belong to.

Al-Eassawi, a Salafi Iraqi who was the teacher of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the leader of the Mujahidin Army, in his work “The Islamic State Between Reality and Illusion, 2014,” describes some of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s characters as:

He is an ordinary Muslim, not very smart, and slow in learning. He has had no jihad experience; he was a common soldier, not at all one of those prominent striking ones; his Islamic knowledge was shallow in Sharia matters, and he was not a specialist in any of the various Islamic sciences. (Ibrahim, pg 12)

After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi helped found the militant group Jamaat Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamaah (JJASJ), in which he served as Head of the Sharia Committee. Al-Baghdadi and his group joined the Mujahideen Shura Council in 2006, in which he served as a member of its Sharia Committee and a senior member of its consultative council. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was arrested by US Forces-Iraq on February 2, 2004, near Fallujah and detained at Camp Bucca as a “civilian internee” until December 2004. After that, he was considered a “low-level prisoner.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Baghdadi

Al-Baghdadi was announced as the ISI leader on May 16, 2010, following the death of his predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

As an ISI leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was responsible for masterminding large-scale destructive operations such as the August 28, 2011, suicide bombing at the Umm al-Qura Mosque in Baghdad, which killed 32 Muslims. Between March and April 2011, the ISI claimed 23 attacks south of Baghdad, all allegedly carried out under his command. Contrary to the entire Muslim world’s understanding and salutation of Islam as a religion of peace, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi states:

Islam was never a religion of peace. Islam is the religion of fighting,” he said. “No one should believe that the war we are waging is the war of the Islamic State. It is the war of all Muslims, but the Islamic State is spearheading it. It is the war of Muslims against infidels.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi further argues that the Islamic State’s Jihad is one for all Muslims, urging them to migrate to Islamic State-held territories or “fight in his land wherever that may be.” See more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Baghdad

Expansion into Syria and the Break with al-Qaeda

Al-Baghdadi remained the ISI leader until its formal development into Syria in 2013. Then, in a statement on April 8, 2013, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the Islamic State’s formation in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The Break between al-Qaeda and ISIS is one of ideological, as well as of control and power. As stated earlier, bin Laden disapproved of al-Zarqawi’s extreme takfiri belief. This radical takfiri view is the first indication of a split. The split grew more when al-Zarqawi declined bin Laden’s advice not to target civilians and the Shia population during the 2003 bombing campaign.

The more significant split occurred in April 2013, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the joining of the Nusra group, operating in Syria into ISI, and the change of the name organization into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The then Nusra group leader, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, rejected al-Baghdadi’s move and kept his allegiance to al-Zawahiri, who was and still is the leader of al-Qaeda. (Ibrahim, pg 123)

On June 9, 2013, when al-Zawahiri ordered Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to limit his role to Iraq and keep the Nusra operation separately, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, accused al-Zawahiri of violating specific religious rulings and openly refused his leader’s order. Thus, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi pulled the rug out from underneath al-Zawahiri, like al-Zarqawi pulled the rug out from underneath bin Laden.

Official Declaration of a Caliphate

On June 29, 2014, ISIS announced the establishment of a worldwide caliphate. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was named its caliph, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was renamed the Islamic State (IS).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Threatens the Saudi Monarch

In his November 13, 2014th, speech, the self-appointed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, threatened the Saudi Kingdom. He effectively used particular words and statements to arouse the emotions of the Salafi/Wahhabi population of the Saudi Kingdom, ensuring their collaboration:

Oh sons of al-Haramayn, the two sacred mosques, Oh people of al-Tawheed, the people of the oneness of God, O people of al-walaa and al-barra (loyalty and friendship vs. disavowal and enmity), the Head of the snake (Saudi Arabia) is at your end. It is the core of the epidemic [of kufr]. So draw your swords and divorce life ….There shall be no peace for the people of Saloul (the Shia) and no place for the disbelievers in Saudi Arabia after today.

We announce the expansion of the Islamic State to new countries and the Haramayn, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, and Algeria land. Oh, soldiers of the Islamic State…erupt volcanoes of Jihad everywhere. Light the earth with fire against all dictators…

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi also said that the Islamic caliphate established in Iraq and Syria in June 2014 is expanding to Saudi territories.” (Ibrahim, pg 236)

Until Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, threatened the Saudi Kingdom for “being his next target,” the silence regarding the wild transgressions of ISIS came alive. However, a new direction in Saudi policy toward ISIS has begun. See “A Change of Direction in the Saudi Monarchy” below.

Al-Wallaa and Al-Barra (Loyalty and Friendship vs. Disavowal and Enmity)

Even though al-Walaa wa al-Barra is an old Salafi/Wahhabi concept, with recent intensive drives, it has become “the most important of principles of Islam.” Nevertheless, al-Walla and al-Barra, in their entirety, are based on the distorted meaning of the verses of the Qur’an discussed in the “Distorting the Islamic Principles” article. Furthermore, al-Wallaa and Al-Barra fuel hatred against other faiths and Muslims he accuses of ascribing gods to God. See the Salafi/Wahhabi definition of the Al-Walaa & Barraa image below.

For more on al-Walaa-wal-baraa in PDF, click on the next link. http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/alWalaawalBaraa1.pdf

http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/alWalaawalBaraa1.pdf

ISIS Destination

When can violence be stopped? How far can extremism go before rationality prevails? Arabia’s writers, thinkers, and rational community leaders have begun to give the ISIS irresponsible equation a viable response and solutions.

A Change of Direction in the Saudi Monarchy

After declaring a new Caliphate and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s direct threat specific to Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud felt the severe weight of ISIS.
The London, al-Hayat magazine (August 10, 2014) reported Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Da’wah, and Guidance of Saudi Arabia, Saleh bin Abdul Aziz Al-al-Shaykh, ordered all Friday congregational prayer leaders in the Kingdom “to warn people of the danger of ISIS’ ideological extremes. He further emphasized not to indict others as disbelievers, stop the criminal behavior in slaughtering innocent lives, and prevent the insecurity they infest in the country.” (Ibrahim pg 239)

Seventy Percent of the Suicide Bombers were Saudis

Another wake-up call for all Saudis was the United Nations report stating: “Seventy percent of the suicide bombers were Saudi.”

 “Summary: This report is published jointly by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It covers July 6 to September 10, 2014 (“the reporting period”). It follows from UNAMI/OHCHR’s first published report on protecting civilians in the ongoing non-international armed conflict in Iraq covering the period from June 5 to July 5, 2014, released on August 18, 2014.

The conflict between the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and affiliated forces, on the one hand, and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) and associated armed groups, on the other, continues to take a heavy toll on civilians. Gross human rights abuses and acts of violence of an increasingly sectarian nature committed by armed groups have exacerbated civilians’ effects and contributed to the deterioration in the human rights situation and the rule of law in many parts of the country.

Overall, at least 24,015 civilians were killed or injured in Iraq during the first eight months of 2014. Of these, at least 8,493 civilians were killed, and 15,782 were wounded. From the spread of the conflict from Anbar to other Iraq areas, UNAMI/OHCHR recorded at least 11,159 civilian casualties between June 1 and August 31. This number includes at least 4,692 civilians killed and 6,467 wounded. The actual numbers could be much higher. Additionally, the number of civilians who have died from the secondary effects of violence, such as lack of access to essential food, water, or medicine, after fleeing their homes or remaining trapped in areas under ISIL control or areas of conflict is unknown. Children, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, and older people have been particularly vulnerable.

As of August 2014, an estimated 1.8 million Iraqis had been displaced due to the ongoing violence. Some 1,000,000 were displaced in areas under the control of ISIL and associated armed groups or government control areas, while 800,000 were replaced in the Kurdistan Region. Therefore, ensuring all civilians’ protection and basic humanitarian needs remain critical.

UNAMI/OHCHR has received reports of serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups, with an apparent systematic and widespread character. These include attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms.” http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IQ/UNAMI_OHCHR_POC_Report_FINAL_6July_10September2014.pdf

Bandar bin Sultan was Ousted as the Chief Director of the Intelligence.

Bandar ben Sultanate, the Head of the Saudi secret service, was handling the Syrian folder himself. He could not topple the government of Syria, despite using all his contacts, including al-Qaeda. He could have trafficked 12,000 Saudis into Syria along with financing and weaponry-supplying networks. Many of the trafficked were criminals in Saudi jails. The Saudi move cannot be considered anything less than an actual Wahhabi/Salafi invasion of Syria. Bander bin Sultan established worldwide support for terrorists to operate in Syria and elsewhere in the world. For more details on his conspicuous activities, see the London Huffington Post, “How Saudi Wahhabism Is the Fountainhead of Islamist Terrorism.”

It should be remembered that Bandar was absent from major political decisions on more than four occasions since he was appointed General Secretary of the National Security Council in 2006. His absence each time was due to a mission’s failure that warrants the suspension of his political activity.

According to al-Akhbar news, the vast majority of the Saudis that entered Syria were during the period. Bandar bin Sultan was Syria’s Chief Director of Intelligence from July 2012 to December 2013. Unable to pin Bandar bin Sultan down to disclose his suspicious activities and possible illegal operations, King Abdullah’s Royal Order came to criminalize “all Saudi fighters, civilians, and military” and to terminate Bandar’s career. http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/19443

The Ex-Kuwaiti Minister Saad al-Ajami’s Brave Admission

The Ex-Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Culture, Saad al-Ajami, in Qatar’s Gate of the East News Paper, dated August 3, 2014, under the heading: Kuluna Daish, We All Are ISIS, states, “ISIS did not come from another planet, neither are they the graduates of the disbelieving western schools, nor the eastern [block] of the past. They are the grown members of our own culture. ISIS received their education in our schools. Prayed in our Mosques, listened to our media, entertained by our satellite programs, and attentively heeded our pulpits. Quenched their thirst from our books and references; they submitted to their [religious] leaders and followed their fatwa.”

He concluded: “We Are All ISIS; we are the ones who created them, we are the ones who educated them, we are the ones who recruited them, we are the ones who charged them, and we are the ones who set them up for the inevitable, and then we stood mystified about the horror that we made in our own hands.”

Minister Saad al-Ajami’s brave admission deserves all the recognition and praise for “knowing the problem is, indeed, half the solution.” Minister Saad al-Ajami’s accurate description of the problem’s origins is indeed the beginning of the ending of this epidemic of bigotry and violence. If the educational systems do not walk away from the old Salafi/Wahhabi doctrine, there will always be ISIS, and the teachings will continue as long as we have people like ISIS. The elimination of the Salafi/Wahhabi doctrine and the like, and the return to the genuine mainstream Islamic teachings, make the best of the solutions.

Extremism Enveloped the Saudi Academia and Society

Another courageous and rational call from the Saudi educational system calls for critiquing the strategy. Dr. Baina al-Mulheim, the Politics and Thought advisor of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Naïf Al-Saud, and a member of the Board of Education at King Saud University, made the following thoughtful statement in al-Riyadh Newspaper on November 3, 2014.

The doctrine of extremism has enveloped academia for decades. The society establishments infused with dogma, and as such, a radicalized political and theological mindset throughout have been shaped.

A statement by Dr. Iman al-Bugha, a professor at Dammam University, in giving her allegiance to ISIS infuriates the community. Dr. al-Mulhim spoke to al-Riyadh News Paper about the danger befalling Saudi society if Saudi women became involved in extremism and the ISIS experience.

This recognition by the Saudi leaders and other ceremonial, public, and social media as a proper Islamic education marks the beginning of the end of ISIS.