When Isis beheaded 21 of Egypt's Coptic Christians, they claimed to be doing God’s work. They quoted religious sounding terminology like "fighting until the war lays down its burdens", not ceasing until the Promised Messiah returns to "break the cross" and "kill the swine".

As a Muslim, one watches in dismay. Religious concepts and terminology ripped out of context and proper use to justify the death of 21 innocent human beings. When meaning is lost, only words remain, and in this case they're religious sounding but totally devoid of religious truth.

Let me share with you some real religious truths: the Koran likens the murder of an innocent life to the murder of the entire humanity, such is its gravity.

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The Koran also declares that there is "no compulsion in matters of religion". It declares that religious war, like the one that Isis is claiming, is totally forbidden. Permission is only granted in situations such as when a religious community has been severely persecuted and has lost all semblance of freedom of conscience. None of these conditions exist for Isis to claim legitimacy.

What does exist is oil, money, and land - the true aims and the true gains of Isis' aggressive territorial warfare. This is what they use to justify to themselves the slaughter of non-believers, or anyone who they think has slighted their beliefs. However, the Koran, whose message Isis butcher at every turn, even instructs Muslims to protect the religious freedoms of others when they are persecuted and threatened. “If Allah did not repel some men by means of others," it reasons, "then there would surely have been destroyed cloisters, and churches, and synagogues, and mosques, wherein the name of Allah is much mentioned”. What this shows is that the God of Islam is the God of all people, however much Isis may hate it.

In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Egyptian Coptics mourn for the 21 men murdered by Isis AP In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A man is comforted by others as he mourns over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, outside of the Virgin Mary church in the village of el-Aour, near Minya, 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of Cairo In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Women mourn over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by Isis militants In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A relative of one of the Egyptian Coptic Christians purportedly murdered by Isis reacts after hearing the news in the village of Al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Relatives of Egyptian Coptic Christians purportedly murdered by Isis militants in Libya react after hearing the news in the village of al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offers his condolences to some of the Coptic families AFP In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb (R) offers his condolences to Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II at Saint-Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo's al-Abbassiya district In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A Coptic clergyman shows a picture of a man whom he says is one of the Egyptian Coptic Christians purportedly murdered by Isis militants in Libya, during a memorial ceremony in the village of al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Relatives of Egyptian Coptic Christians murdered by Isis militants in Libya wlak through the village of Al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A family relative of abducted Coptic Christian weeps AP In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Men mourn over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, inside of the Virgin Mary Church in the village of el-Aour, near Minya, 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of Cairo In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Men mourn over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, inside the Virgin Mary Church in the village of el-Aour, near Minya, 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of Cairo In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Protesters hold placards during a demonstration against the killing of Egyptian Coptic Christians by militants of the Islamic State in Libya, in Cairo In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Egyptians protest what they characterise as Government inaction in reaction to the kidnapping of Copts in Libya, Cairo EPA In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A Coptic Christian woman prays for the release of 21 Coptic Egyptian men AP

It would seem then that Islam’s peaceful message was too much of a burden for Isis to carry. In frustration, they threw off this burden at their very inception, left with only some misremembered words to cling on to.

For me, the words of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community come to mind when I see the atrocities they commit in the name of Islam. As far back as 1900 Ahmad wrote, in exasperation over the promotion of extremism at his time: “Those who possess sight, read the traditions and ponder over the Holy Koran should understand well that the kind of Jihad practiced by many of today’s barbaric people is not Islamic Jihad… Foolish people hear the word jihad, and make it an excuse for the fulfilment of their own selfish desires. Or perhaps it is sheer madness that inclines them towards bloodshed.”

Today we are left perplexed by the same question - are Isis extremely selfish or just mad? There's a good chance it's both, although if there one thing that their actions have made absolutely clear is there is nothing ‘Islamic’ about Isis.