“We hate you first and foremost, because you are disbelievers, you reject the oneness of Allah.”

ISIS recently released a new issue (no.15) of Dabiq, their professionally produced magazine article. It is about 82 pages and is entitled, “Break the Cross.”[1] This magazine issue, as well as all of ISIS’s Dabiq issues, can be found here on Clarion Project’s website. The issue covers everything from a response to “pagan” Christianity and atheism to a rebuttal of politically correct narratives about (what Westerners would call) Islamism. The last of these topics is what makes the fifteenth issue of Dabiq a very important piece; it busts open the politically correct narratives that are so rampant about Islamists and their motivations.

Many politically correct journalists, politicians, analysts, and people from all walks of life and from all sides of the political spectrum– although mostly on the left–have been incessantly stating that Islamist groups like ISIS are not primarily motivated by religious ideology, but are merely using the veneer of Islam in order to perpetuate ulterior political motives. These people who have swallowed the politically correct narrative hook, line and sinker frequently try to explain the violence perpetrated by Islamists by appealing to the foreign policy, and so-called colonialist and imperialist mentality, of the West. This Dabiq issue explicitly tears apart this narrative, demonstrating once and for all that ISIS and Islamist hatred of the West is rooted in religious ideology.

While Pope Benedict XVI’s words on the incompatibility of democracy and Islam are praised, Pope Francis’ statement that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Quran are opposed to every form of violence” is called out as being deceptive.[2]

The above rebuke of Pope Francis is relatively mild compared to the rebuke of similar politically correct positions in this issue’s article called “Why We Hate You and Why we Fight You.” The article’s introduction contains the following sharp rebuke of the naiveté of the “Islam-is-a-peaceful-religion crowd”:

Many Westerners, however, are already aware that claiming the attacks of the mujahidin to be senseless and questioning incessantly as to why we hate the West and why we fight them is nothing more than a political act and a propaganda tool. The politicians will say it regardless of how much it stands in opposition to facts and common sense just to garner as many votes as they can for the next election cycle. The analysts and journalists will say it in order to keep themselves from becoming a target for saying something that the masses deem to be “politically incorrect.” The apostate “imams” in the West will adhere to the same tired cliché in order to avoid a backlash from the disbelieving societies in which they’ve chosen to reside. The point is, people know that it’s foolish, but they keep repeating it regardless because they’re afraid of the consequences of deviating from the script. There are exceptions among the disbelievers, no doubt, people who will unabashedly declare that jihad and the laws of the Shari’ah – as well as everything else deemed taboo by the Islam-is-a-peaceful-religion crowd – are in fact completely Islamic, but they tend to be people with far less credibility who are painted as a social fringe, so their voices are dismissed and a large segment of the ignorant masses continues believing the false narrative. As such, it becomes important for us to clarify to the West in unequivocal terms – yet again – why we hate you and why we fight you.[3]

The article goes on to list six reasons why they hate the West and why they fight Westerners. They six reasons are as follows:

“We hate you first and foremost, because you are disbelievers, you reject the oneness of Allah.” “We hate you because your secular, liberal societies permit the very things that Allah has prohibited while banning many of the things He has permitted.” “In the case of the atheist fringe, we hate you and wage war against you because you disbelieve in the existence of your Lord and Creator.” “We hate you for your crimes against Islam and wage war against you to punish you for your transgressions against our religion.” “We hate you for your crimes against Muslims; your drones and fighter jets bombs, kill, and maim our people around the world.” Sixth “We hate you for invading our lands and fight you to repel you and drive you out.”

After going into some detail on each of the above six points, the article concludes by stating the following:

What’s important to understand here is that although some might argue that your foreign policies are the extent of what drives our hatred, this particular reason for hating you is secondary, hence the reason we addressed it at the end of the above list. The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you. No doubt, we would stop fighting you then as we would stop fighting any disbelievers who enter into a covenant with us, but we would not stop hating you…The gist of the matter is that there is indeed a rhyme to our terrorism, warfare, ruthlessness, and brutality. As much as some liberal journalist would like you to believe that we do what we do because we’re simply monsters with no logic behind our course of action, the fact is that we continue to wage – and escalate – a calculated war that the West thought it had ended several years ago. [emphasis added]

There you have it—straight from the horse’s mouth. Those advancing the politically correct narrative that ISIS has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, and that ISIS members are not really motivated by religion but by socio-economic reasons, etc., need to get a reality check. Islamists are unquestionably drawing from early Islamic source texts—there can be no doubt here. Their acts are not “senseless” acts of violence, but cold and calculated steps based on an evil Islamofascistic ideology. Islamists wish to subjugate the entire world under sharia—a legal system that is antithetical to Western values and egalitarian principles of liberal democracy. Military campaigns against Islamists is insufficient. It is necessary to fight against their ideology of Islamism—it is the greatest threat of our time.

[1] The choice of title belies ISIS’ utter hatred of Christianity. Islamists—and indeed many Muslims—the world over look to the return of Jesus, when, according to a sahih hadith in Sunan Abi Dawood, Jesus will return to Earth and break the cross.

[2] Dabiq no. 15, p.75.

[3] Dabiq no. 15, pp. 30-1.