Perspicuo
Veteran Member
The Daily Beast: Welcome to Jihad City, Syria
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/06/welcome-to-jihad-city-syria.html
I put the blame on the feet of the faith--the idea of it, the requirement of it, and the social-cognitive-emotional phenomenon it is. Faith can make you a peaceful, love-giving friar, or a rabid terrorist extremist. Faith may be a great motivation for the extreme of selflessness (for want of a better word, after all, you're working to heap your own fortune in heaven) as much as the extreme of cruelty... but for simple, balanced, good living, it is entirely unnecessary.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/06/welcome-to-jihad-city-syria.html
ISIS, a brutal group disavowed even by al Qaeda, says it’s the ruler of the world’s only true Islamic state. And in Raqqa, it’s creating God’s kingdom on earth by crucifying ‘infidels.’
Three years of civil war has created a catastrophe in Syria with few parallels in the 21st century. A tragedy for average Syrians, for others the carnage has been an opportunity. Amid the wreckage, jihadist groups fighting the regime and each other have planted their flags in the rubble and tested the limits of their power.
None have claimed more ground or been more brutal in the areas under their control than ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham. While al Qaeda aims to resurrect the Caliphate, ISIS claims it has already done so and declared itself ruler of the world’s only true Islamic state.
I put the blame on the feet of the faith--the idea of it, the requirement of it, and the social-cognitive-emotional phenomenon it is. Faith can make you a peaceful, love-giving friar, or a rabid terrorist extremist. Faith may be a great motivation for the extreme of selflessness (for want of a better word, after all, you're working to heap your own fortune in heaven) as much as the extreme of cruelty... but for simple, balanced, good living, it is entirely unnecessary.