Iraq: Out of the desert into Mosul (closed)

[OUTLAW 09]

The Koran is great for understanding terminology, ideas, and context. It's not so great in explaining the structure of the regional security regime, the fraility of Middle Eastern states, and the consequences of persistent international penetration of the region. Whether Arabs worshipped Allah or the Flying Spaghetti Monister, the destruction of Iraq would have produced the kind of violence we are witnessing unfold today. The revival of militant Islam and the explosion of sectarian violence is not the cause of the fundamental conflict in the region; it's the expression of that conflict through a religious (and ethnic) frame.

But see AP you miss the point again---it explains the thinking, the acting, the morality of the individuals we call terrorists or others might call freedom fighters or in the case of IS--Takfirists.

See AP the Salafists interpret the Koran differently than do Takfirists--unless and this is critical unless you truly understand how they interpret the differences---How do you actually analyze their movements/internal developments, their thoughts, their politics, and their reasons for fighting Shia or for that matter each other. You mentioned Wahhabism---they have their own interpretations as well that cross over both.

And more importantly how and why do they form coalitions now with say the IS and then later other groups.

See AP Islam is a complete package---economic thoughts, political thoughts, judicial thoughts and morality. The Koran is the centerpiece and the core document---understand it and you understand more than you will ever need to in understanding the Sunni Shia clash and what drove Khomeini and still drives the core Iranian group--the Quds Force as it both protects and expands the Green Crescent in the name of Khomeini.

See AP it is all connected--you tend to just see the "big picture" without understanding that the small bits and pieces actually form the big picture.

You do not see that complete package in say Christianity. Therefore the core differences right now in how IS is treating Christians.

They are acting out of the Takfiri mindset---many Salafists will tolerate Christians under the concept of "they are also people of the book". Secular Muslims and there are many in Iraq totally tolerate Christians--but where do we hear that being mentioned-and secular Muslims tolerate Shia and often intermarry and yes Sunni do convert to Shia--right now it is only IS that is being talked about.

Now you can understand the violence angle of IS.