Because, fuck ISIS

The Islamic State, popularly known as ISIS or ISIL, has risen in power substantially over the last three years and is now the “free world’s” biggest enemy. The organisation has such a radical approach that even the Taliban disassociated itself from it. And mind you, the Taliban are a group of people who did not mind planes full of people flying into the World Trade Center.

Saddam Hussain was an interesting story. Bin Laden was a nice little twist in the history of the world. A major villain figure that emerges every once in a while and gives us all a story to tell for a decade till another one rises. Laden was in the mold of the drug cartels. The only difference was that his kills were recorded and reported live. Also his kills were more aesthetic (if I can use that word) for the news channels to show. Because if we look at the numbers, the cartels have claimed more lives in the first three episodes of Narcos than the entire 9/11 attacks.

We had our own little villains too. The Indian Mujahideen and a bunch of other clowns who came from across the border to mess with us. Our financial capital (and also the city with the most annoying climate) was under siege for three days. Taj fell. It was reclaimed. But in the process, the terrorists managed to leave an impression. The only thing worse than the 26/11 attacks was Ram Gopal Varma’s movie about the 26/11 attacks.

But ISIS, it is a different cattle of fish. And the reason I call them a cattle of fish and not any other animal because they are at the lowest rung of evolution. Their brains are as small as the fish. Now ISIS is no one-decade villain story. I think ISIS is the story of the century. Or maybe, ISIS is the prequel to the story of the century. Just like World War I was a prequel to Hitler’s madness.

Of all the organisations that have threatened a white man’s idea of world peace in the recent past, ISIS is the only one that has the potential to reach the maximum. And there are two reasons I say that.

1. Till date, every other terror organisation in the world spoke of bringing doom to a certain section of people whom they disagreed with. ISIS has gone one step further. It has promised people an Islamic caliphate without boundaries. They’ve provided people with an illusion of a working system. [Click on this to know more about ISIS’ borders policy]
2. All the terror organisations, in my limited understanding of the topic, have tried to unify the Muslims of the world against a common enemy, the infidels. They tried to appeal to the Muslims of the world by presenting them with a very radical form of Islam. They obviously failed because the majority of the Muslims in the world – even in the areas worst hit by these organisations – refused to believe in this form of Islam. What ISIS has done is that they have turned the tables. Instead of asking/requesting the Muslims of the world to unite, they are commanding them to. And every country that has dared to speak against this command has suffered.

The second point is what terrifies me.

Numbers never lie.

 

Initially, ISIS had a familiar attack pattern. When it first broke into the world scene in 2013, most of its attacks were in Syria. This was done with a motive of establishing a base at Raqqa, which it proclaimed will be the capital of the Caliphate.

Then they did what every terrorist organisation from the middle east does. Attack the west. Throughout 2014, all their targets were Christian dominated countries. But where’s the fun in that? We’ve all seen that, right?

2015 saw them turn towards whom they claim to be their own. Majority of the attacks in this year were in Muslim countries and in the Muslim dominated areas of other countries. France was feeling left out so it pulled itself into the picture voluntarily with Charlie Hebdo.

This particular trend of bombing their own has continued into 2016. Libya, Iraq, Turkey, Banladesh, Belgium, Indinasia and Syira have seen the worst of ISIS this year. And if that isn’t a clear indication of what they intend to do, they went one step forward. They attacked the holy city of Medina in the month Ramzan. Here is a list of all ISIS attacks substantiating this particular pattern.

This attack, I think, was a statement. A statement to the world, to the Muslim world specifically. A statement of power, a statement of authority and a statement of the kind of dark days that await us.

From where I see it, all ISIS wants to do is to get the Muslim world to submit them power and then use that power to wipe out everyone who doesn’t believe in their ideology off the face of this earth. And people who say stuff like ‘all Muslims are terrorists’ are just helping ISIS in doing so.

Because now isn’t a time to blame religious ideologies. Now isn’t the time to deepen religious divides. We’ll have a lot time for that later on. If anything, this is the time we stand together as a race and fight this evil that knocks on our door. An evil that is trying to get the loyalty of the world’s second largest religion. An evil that threatens our society with a holocaust like event. Now is the time we stand together, leave our religious divide and send a message to these sons of bitches who want to establish a medieval caliphate in the world through the power of weapons that they would have never been able to make from their caves.

And once we’re done defeating the ISIS, then we’ll start killing each other again in the name of religion. But let’s stand and fight ISIS to protect our right of having more religions in the world so that we can kill each other for ages to come. Let us not let ISIS take this from us.

In the words of Russell Peters,

‘You don’t kill me. I kill me.’

Yup.

Been a while, will need a little more

Here’s the thing. The world has no place for sentiments what so ever. Take anything for that matter, sentiment dies soon. Sentiment is like jerking off to the world.

They do it, they feel shit for some time, then they just wipe it off and completely forget about it. Be it the Peshawar killings, the attacks in Paris or a broken heart, everything is forgotten by everyone.

However, the only thing that remains constant is the pain of the people who are still going through the suffering knowing that their chance to shine under the spotlight of sympathy is gone and now there is no turning back as they stare doom, right in its face.

But doom here isn’t death. Doom here is life. Doom here is living through stuff. Doom here is making peace with the fact that you don’t have something you used to. Doom here is understanding and living with the fact that you’ve lost it and its never coming back.

And the pain that comes with this sort of a doom is of a different nature. Because it is pain of the highest order. And it is pain that is here to stay. So with time you stop responding to the pain. But you know it is still there. And while you die slowly, each moment with this pain, all you tell yourselves is that ‘it’s been a while, will need a little more. But I am sure it will all be alright.’

Heart goes out to the people in Syria. I can only imagine what you guys are going through. Not exactly a ‘been there done that’ kind of a thing but hey, we’ve all seen pain.

Hang in tight.