Thank you very much.
Good morning to everyone. It's an honour to speak before you this morning.
I'm going to focus on the role of religion in ISIS activities. The reason I think this is so important is that there is some reluctance, particularly among western governments, academics, and the media, to take religion seriously as being part of ISIS's appeal, part of its recruitment strategies. I think that's a mistake.
There's also, I think, a tendency among Muslim leaders in the Middle East to say that this isn't about Islam, that this isn't the real Islam. Unfortunately, here we are, 30 years after we saw the emergence of key Islamic groups, namely al Qaeda, which actually began in Egypt, and we have to tell ourselves that it is about Islam, because this is what they believe. It does have something to do with Islam.
I think the more relevant question is, what is this something in Islam that is so powerful that we are seeing people from 80 countries joining ISIS? One answer that demonstrates the great role of religion in ISIS' power and its appeal is that the speeches of al-Baghdadi and some of the other ISIS leaders are filled with references to the Koran. This is how they condone their military actions. This is how they condone most of what they do. This is how they seek legitimacy for their interpretations. They refer to the Koran in almost all of their speeches.
They have also recruited clerics from Saudi Arabia, from Morocco, from Yemen to endorse their ideas to give them more legitimacy. On this particular point, we have seen a lot of discussion since the killing of the Japanese journalist just 48 hours ago, or at least with the publication of the video—we assume he was killed in early January—about the competition between al Qaeda and ISIS. This competition isn't just about power, as was alluded to earlier. It's also about Islamic interpretation. For example, al Qaeda doesn't really condone killing other Muslims. When al-Baghdadi founded ISIS there was a huge quarrel between the leadership of ISIS and the leadership of al Qaeda, because there are profound differences. But the fight is not just about territory. It's not just about how many people they are able to recruit. It's about Islamic interpretation.
I think another great difference is how it reflects on the ground in how religious minorities are treated. I know that the committee is particularly concerned with religious persecution, and I'll get to that a bit later. ISIS' position obviously is not only that their campaign is directed against Christians, who have left in great numbers from many Arab countries, but it's also, as Ms. Laipson pointed out, an internal Muslim debate, because people in ISIS don't even believe that Shias are real Muslims. So it's a debate about Islamic interpretation, and it's a way to marginalize other Muslims who are not with ISIS, not only to marginalize them, but to kill them.
To give you a brief background of where ISIS has developed some of its ideas, there was a book written by al Qaeda leadership in Iraq called The Management Of Savagery. ISIS has taken some of the ideals and principles in this book to a greater level. One of the principles in the book is that as states wither away, this gives jihadists more opportunities. It's a great time for jihadism. Of course, we've seen this. I think this is one of the reasons that ISIS took this opportunity. We are seeing failed states in Iraq and Syria. We are seeing failed states all over the Arab world. They consider this an opportunity.
They also consider this an opportunity because not only has the nation-state collapsed, but there is no longer any sense of citizenship among the majority of people in some Arab countries. In the case of Iraq, it's very apparent. We all understand that the Sunnis were marginalized by now two successive Shia governments, and that has been a great source of popularity for ISIS. ISIS has capitalized on this.
It's also, as was alluded to earlier, that there's a sense in the Arab world and in Arab societies that they are no longer Iraqis or Egyptians or Lebanese, but they are Shia or Sunni Muslims. Another appeal of ISIS, even though many Muslims might not necessarily agree with this idea, is the establishment of the caliphate. This is something that has evolved and it has been debated in Arab societies for a long time. There's a sense of defeat, of loss, because many Muslims compare their standing in the world to what it was centuries ago and they feel that they have been defeated, not by the west but by their own leaders. I think that's a very important part of the establishment of the caliphate and of why ISIS has been able to bring people and to lure people into this Islamic state.
As part of this, I think that as westerners we have to stop ourselves from believing that the majority of Muslims can actually challenge ISIS. We had this discussion after 9/11. Even in this country, in the Muslim community now many years later, the leadership has not really been able to effectively articulate why extremism exists. Again, as I said in the beginning, the most cliché expression is that this isn't about Islam. If you look, for example, at what happened in France, I think it's a very good example of how western governments and western societies need to come to grips with the fact that there are certain principles in Islam that are different. Freedom of expression is one of them. This again is part of the appeal of ISIS, that they are taking some Islamic principles and interpreting them in a sense that is not only anti-western but that is agreeable to a lot of Muslims.
I'll share a very brief story with you. When I was a correspondent in Iran for the Guardian many years ago, it was the 10th anniversary of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie. I went and interviewed many clerics in the city of Qom, where they have their seminaries, and I asked them if they thought this fatwa should still be in effect today. They all said yes, even the moderate ones, because, as they explained, they don't consider the principle of freedom of expression the same way the west does. They don't interpret it in the Islamic tradition in the same way. They believe there need to be limits on freedom of expression.
I offer you this anecdote to show that I think we have to resist our tendency to believe that somehow we can convince Islamic societies to think as we do and to appreciate our principles and morals and moral values.
What is the appeal of ISIS? It is interpretations of the Koran that are agreed upon by at least some Muslims. It is also not just the messaging but the fact that a lot of Muslims really don't understand their own religion. They have this powerful movement that is talking about how Islam was interpreted hundreds of years ago, and in this internal Muslim debate, that's again what distinguishes ISIS from a lot of groups. They believe that the real Islamic practice should stem from the time of the prophet. Other Islamic scholars say, “No, we need to take the traditions of the prophet, but we need to apply them to the modern world.”
I was reading an interview in Vice News with a Canadian citizen by the name of Abu Usamah. He's also known as Farah Mohamed. He said no one recruited him and actually no one spoke a single word to him. All he did was open the newspaper and read that ISIS was following the Koran, so he went and read the Koran and decided that they were right, and that's why he joined ISIS.
I'll just make a few other brief points.