To my Iraqi brothers and sisters, Arab and Muslim nations, and my friends in the international community: I would like to take this opportunity to introduce this edition of Unipath magazine, to greet you all and express my gratitude to the coalition forces for their continued support to Iraq in its war on terror. We must combat the vicious attacks of terror groups against all of mankind, whether they invade cities and kill innocents with car bombs or suicide attacks, wage a war of information on social media, or promote sectarian hatred and exclusionary ideologies on their takfirist satellite TV stations.
As our security forces advance toward defeating Daesh, some despicable voices are mourning Daesh’s losses. The majority of these voices come from those who promote the group’s toxic ideology to further their sectarian goals, as well as those who naively believe in and promote Daesh’s false claims and slogans. These voices appear on suspicious satellite TV stations as experts, analysts and sometimes clerics denouncing fictitious crimes against civilians by Iraqi security forces — even though these same individuals were silent for the past two years of Daesh atrocities!
The appearance of these groups is part of Daesh’s war against Iraqis. Daesh wages war with weapons while these voices support and spread its false narrative. As these two entities played off of each other, they swiftly sought financial support and sympathy among the Arab and Islamic publics. For that reason, to be frank, we will face a difficult and complex situation after defeating Daesh. All signs suggest that Daesh is reverting to its old tactics of killing innocents, bombing marketplaces and deceiving young Muslims. Our efforts have fallen short in trying to eradicate the toxic ideology that produces Daesh.
If we compare the percentage of Daesh supporters and opponents on social media, we will find that those who promote terrorist ideologies are in the majority, especially on the hundreds of sites managed by an electronic army with sophisticated capabilities and substantial funding. This does not mean terrorists are in fact in the majority, but rather that Muslims have too often stood idly by, failing to do their moral and religious duty to discredit and expose the terrorists’ lies.
This complex battle will require a massive international effort to rebuild society, promote a culture of tolerance, and thereby cure the virus of terrorism. All of us share in this critical responsibility. As the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “He who witnesses evil, let him correct it with his hand. If he cannot, let him correct it with his words. If he cannot, then let him correct it in his heart; that is the weakest of faith.”
No one will disagree that the dirty deeds of terrorism are the most dangerous products of civilization in recent decades! But what is more dangerous are the thoughts that, like termites attacking a home, plague people’s minds in the dark, weaving conspiracies, secretly eating away at the house until it collapses on its inhabitants. Those suspicious characters who promote Daesh’s ideology likewise work to destroy every building and turn all military victories in Iraq into dust. Along with their crimes of murdering innocents with bombs, they commit this act of hideous sabotage through a campaign of misinformation.
It is not possible to defeat ideology with guns and tanks, so we must work hard in the next phase of the battle to protect society from terrorist ideologies and focus on liberated areas because children and youth there were subjected to systematic and dangerous brainwashing. We rely on the Iraqi government to rebuild infrastructure and provide job opportunities, and on religious institutions to play a role in spreading love and brotherhood among the people. They must be wary of ideas that are alien to Islam that distort the meanings of the holy books and corrupt youth.
We must call for a campaign urging love, tolerance, acceptance of others and respect for the rule of law and security forces in all their forms. The actions of the international coalition must be marketed this way across all respected media outlets; this is the least we can do to show our appreciation.
Sheikh Dr. Khalid al-Mullah
Chairman of Iraqi Scholars Group