Tolerance, love and a war of ideas ISIS can’t win
AN OPEN letter to Islamic State: Your many battles have gained you much publicity, but the war you have started is a war of ideas. You want to create a caliphate, so we should shine as much light on this idea as has been shone on your exploits on the battlefield. Your caliphate will be ruled by a caliph, an absolute monarch answerable only to God. He will govern with the impunity enjoyed by King John before the barons forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. Your stated intention is for your caliphate to extend to the four corners of the earth and to govern all men. You will not end your war until everyone on earth is ruled by your caliph. In your caliphate, our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters will be denied an education and, in all matters, women will be subordinate to men. So in your caliphate, the world would be denied leaders such as Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher and Aung San Suu Kyi. In your caliphate, music, dance and other forms of artistic expression will be banned, and no one will ever again enjoy another ballet, opera, play, film or orchestral performance. In your caliphate, no religion other than Islam will be tolerated. Every Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Jew and atheist will be put to death unless they convert to Islam. But not even being a Muslim will mean one is safe in your caliphate. As your brothers in Islam, the Shi-ites, have discovered, you are merciless to those who do not share your particular view of Islam. The beheadings and torture you have publicly carried out give the world a foretaste of how law will be enforced in your caliphate. The attacks on innocent civilians in Paris and elsewhere show the world how little you value human life. Your idea is to roll back 1,000 years of human enlightenment and call it progress. I’m 54 years old and have lived on four continents. I don’t believe I’ve met anyone who would want to live in your caliphate. In fact, most people I’ve met would fight to the death rather than accept your idea. That’s why I know your idea will fail. There’s one way for you not to lose your war, however: lay down your arms and go back home to those you love. You will discover that building a world in which your religious beliefs can co-exist alongside those of others in the end is a better idea.
J. FIELD, York.