ISIS Is Not Islamic?

In a televised address this evening, President Barack Obama outlined his ideas on how to defeat the Islamic State. Along the way, he declared the organization variously known as ISIS or ISIL to be "not Islamic."

In making this preposterous claim, Obama joins his two immediate predecessors in pronouncing on what is not Islamic. Bill Clinton called the Taliban treatment of women and children "a terrible perversion of Islam." George W. Bush deemed that 9/11 and other acts of violence against innocents "violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith."

Word magic permits Obama to turn ISIS into a "not Islamic" organization.

None of the three has any basis for such assertions. To state the obvious: as non-Muslims and politicians, rather than Muslims and scholars, they are in no position to declare what is Islamic and what is not. As Bernard Lewis, a leading American authority of Islam, notes: "it is surely presumptuous for those who are not Muslims to say what is orthodox and what is heretical in Islam." (That Obama was born and raised a Muslim has no relevance here, for he left the faith and cannot pronounce on it.)

Indeed, Obama compounds his predecessors' errors and goes further: Clinton and Bush merely described certain actions (treatment of women and children, acts of violence against innocents) as un-Islamic, but Obama has dared to declare an entire organization (and quasi-state) to be "not Islamic."

The only good thing about this idiocy? At least it's better than the formulation by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (known as CAIR) which has the nerve to call ISIS "anti-Islamic."

In the end, though, neither U.S. presidents nor Islamist apologists fool people. Anyone with eyes and ears realizes that ISIS, like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda before it, is 100 percent Islamic. And most Westerners, as indicated by detailed polling in Europe, do have eyes and ears. Over time, they are increasingly relying on common sense to conclude that ISIS is indeed profoundly Islamic. (September 10, 2014)

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Sep. 10, 2014 addenda: (1) This analysis fits into a larger context, which I explore at "Prominent Non-Muslims Decide What Islam Is and Is Not."

(2) John Rossomando of the Investigative Project on Terrorism gathers more Islamist apologetics at "Muslim Leaders Insist Islamic State Not Islamic."

(3) A reader asked me: If Obama, as non-Muslim, is in no position to decide ISIS is not Islamic, how am I, as non-Muslim, to decide that it is Islamic? Clever question, but I am not deciding anything, just listening to the claims made by ISIS and acknowledging them. More generally, if someone says he's Muslim, I take his word for it. Incidentally, If someone (e.g., Obama) says he's Christian, I take his word for it too. I am not in the business of judging theology or hearts.