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3/8/2015 'What ISIS Really Wants': How Readers Are Responding to
The Atlantic's Cover Story - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants-reader-response-atlantic/385710/
1/5
UnbreakableKimmySchmidtand the SunnySide of SurvivingBy Lenika
Cruz
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Lam
How IncarcerationInfects aCommunityBy Emily vonHoffmann
Why Im a Public-School Teacherbut a Private-School ParentBy
Michael Godsey
GRAEME WOOD FEB 24 2015, 7:00 AM ET
My cover story in TheAtlantics March issue asked, as simply as
possible, WhatdoesISISbelieve,andwhatareitsideologicalroots?I read
every ISISstatement I could find, including fatwas and tweets and
road signs, and I front-loaded my mornings with execution videos in
hopes that by bedtime Id haveforgotten enough of the imagery to
sleep without nightmares. I picked throughevery spoken or written
word in search of signals of what ISIS cares about andhow its
members justify their violence. I also asked a small group of its
mostdoctrinaire overseas supporters for guidance, and they
obliged.
At the time, the dominant clich about ISIS was that it was a
thrill-kill groupthat had hijacked Islam for its own ends, and that
these ends were cynical,pathological, and secular. The
investigation yielded something like the oppositeconclusion: ISIS
had hijacked secular sources of power and grievance, and wasusing
them for religious endsends that are, at least among some
supporters,sincere and carefully thought through. They include a
belief in the imminentfulfillment of prophecy, with the group in a
key role.
I am grateful for thoughtful reaction from many sources. (Ill
examine separatelythe pushback to my claim that ISIS is within the
Islamic tradition.) Shadi Hamidof the Brookings Institution
emphasized that ideology is deeply embedded insocial and political
facts, and that ignoring those facts is at least as dangerous
as
'WhatISISReallyWants':TheResponseA survey of reactions to The
Atlantic's cover storyfrom think tanks to jihadist Twitter
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3/8/2015 'What ISIS Really Wants': How Readers Are Responding to
The Atlantic's Cover Story - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants-reader-response-atlantic/385710/
2/5
Related Story
What ISIS Really Wants
"The enemies of Muslimsprefer to fight theirimaginary war
basedupon rational freedom-
ignoring the ideology. I agree completely: ISIS achieved its
successes in a hellishsetting where all authority was predatory and
nothing was safe; it offeredcertainty, sincerity, and the promise
of reliability; it did this in ways that wereantithetical to
traditional interpretations of Islam (though not quite
asantithetical as some believe).
I suggested that religious ideology was underratedas an
explanatory lensindeed, barely understoodas onebut didnt specify
the relative importance ofit versus other factors, specifically the
badgovernance, the shifting social mores, thehumiliation of living
in lands valued only for theiroil. If I could specify that relative
importance, Iwould; I find the confidence of others in this
regardfascinating. But as I wrote in the original essay:
Without acknowledgment of these factors, no explanation of the
rise of theIslamic State could be complete. I set out to write an
essay about this groupsideology, which heretofore has gone
underacknowledged, so I dont apologize fordoing just that, though I
take to heart Hamids counsel to see these elements asless separable
than they appear.
J.M. Berger, also of Brookings, argued that the religiosity of
the group mattersless than its importance as an identity movement,
an aggressive form of definingmembership in a group. Id add that
the type of religious ideology ISIS espousesis remarkably
well-adapted for brutal enforcement of group membership. Thistype
of jihadi-Salafism, unapologetically aimed at purifying Islam
throughkilling, was obsessively policing its adherents well before
the rise of the IslamicState. Understanding that sect is a way to
understand its associated identity.
Andrew Anderson, who studies jihadists, wrote this fine
reflection on the contextof the Islamic State's views of warfare,
which he places in the medieval periodrather than in the early
Islamic conquests to which ISIS considers its project therightful
heir. He and my colleague Frank Griffel at Yale both point out how
ISIS,which is so keen to emphasize its early-Islamic cred, differs
from early Islam inimportant and substantive ways.
For an Islamist perspective, Id refer you to
http://justpaste.it/jhxc, a quickreply by a Twitter user who
rebuked me gently (thanks) for missteps and endedwith a proposal I
dearly hope comes to pass. What is really needed, he wrote,is a
delegation from an Islamist background to visit Islamic State
territory andengage with their leadership and ideologues as well as
their common fighters.He doubted that the specific ideologues I met
are the best representatives of thegroups ideology. Until that
happens it is hard to truly fathom what thismovement is about and
what it truly wants.
As for the reaction from the Islamic State: I noticed my article
tweeted outmultiple times by ISIS supporters, at least once by a
fan of the group who notednervously that the guy who wrote it must
be spying on their tweets. Those whosecomments I saw were delighted
that I had taken their ideology seriously andconcluded that ISIS is
an Islamic group. Their delight pleases me only becausemy intention
was to describe the group in terms it recognized and
consideredfair. I suppose at least some supporters thought I
succeeded, or at least camecloser than the last infidel who
tried.
Anjem Choudary, the notorious London blowhardwho patiently
explained the version of jihadism hesupports, tweeted the story
out, pleased that he andhis minions got their airtime. Musa
Cerantonio, amore soft-spoken and scholarly young Australianwho did
the same, sent a long and thoughtful email
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3/8/2015 'What ISIS Really Wants': How Readers Are Responding to
The Atlantic's Cover Story - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants-reader-response-atlantic/385710/
3/5
loving democrats vs.irrational evil terroristmadmen."
with a few points of correction and clarification. Hestressed
that execution for wearing Western clothesand shaving is not an
Islamic State practice. I thinkhes right. ISIS certainly forbids
shaving, butmerely to commit a sin is not grounds for
excommunication or killing. (To excommunicate over matters of
sin would putthe Islamic State in line with the Kharijites, an
early sect to which ISISs Muslimenemies often compare the group.)
He added that dying without pledgingallegiance to a valid caliph,
which I correctly quoted him as saying is a death ofdisbelief, is
not to die as an infidel. He said that the quote as
printedmisleadingly left open the interpretation that he was
calling Muslims infidels. Todo so would jeopardize his own status
as a Muslim.
But the most interesting comments concerned my storys popularity
among ISISsupporters (referred to below with the shorthand
"Muslims"). I was unsurprisedto see it shared online by Islamic
State fans, at least somewhat positively, but ofcourse I was still
uncomfortable about being praised by avowed gnocidaires.One ISIS
supporter wrote to me to note the peculiarity in all this. The
piece, hesaid,
is grounded in realism, and argues that not understanding what
ishappening is very dangerous, especially if fighting a war, one
must fight thewar that is real, not the invented one that one
wishes to fight. Perhapsironically, your [writings] ... are most
dangerous to the Muslims (not that itis necessarily meant to be so
on your behalf), yet they are celebrated byMuslims who see them as
pieces that speak the truth that so many try todeny, but also
because [Muslims] know that deep down the idealists of theworld
will still ignore them.
What stands out to me that others don't seem to discuss much, is
how theIslamic State, Osama [bin Laden] and others are operating as
if they arereading from a script that was written 1,400 years ago.
They not only followthese prophecies, but plan ahead based upon
them. One would thereforeassume that the enemies of Islam would
note this and prepare adequately,but [its] almost as if they feel
that playing along would mean that theybelieve in the prophecies
too, and so they ignore them and go about thingstheir own way. ...
[The] enemies of the Muslims may be aware of what theMuslims are
planning, but it won't benefit them at all as they prefer to
eitherkeep their heads in the sand, or to fight their imaginary war
based uponrational freedom-loving democrats vs. irrational evil
terrorist madmen.With this in mind, maybe you can understand to
some degree one of thereasons why many Muslims will share your
piece. Its not because we don'tunderstand what it is saying in
terms of how to defeat the Muslims, ratherits because we know that
those in charge will ignore it and screw things upanyway.
ALL POSTS RSS EMAIL Follow @gcaw 11K followers
GRAEME WOOD is a contributing editor atThe Atlantic.His personal
site isgcaw.net.
1 WhatISISReallyWants
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PRESENTEDBY
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3/8/2015 'What ISIS Really Wants': How Readers Are Responding to
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