Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi 


This may seem like an odd post to some readers who have been following this blog for some time and who know my philosophy. I am going to get back to my project of soliciting input and trying to build a widely based consensus on a new moral code for all of humanity in a day or so, but I have to digress today because an item in the news has really upset me. 

In the last day or so, Abu-Bakr al Baghdadi has gone online and pleaded with Muslims everywhere, and especially those in Saudi Arabia, to come to the aid of the new caliphate, the ISIS state in the parts of Syria and Iraq that his forces are now controlling. That area is shrinking by the day, and the forces lined up against it are far beyond the capacity of his fighters to handle. The destruction of ISIS is pretty much a foregone conclusion, in other words, unless Allah intervenes personally, and I don't think Allah will do so for a state that has allowed so many cruel excesses. 

Russia, China, India, the states of Europe, the U.S. ...almost any powerful, potentially useful ally that we can name is guaranteed to align against ISIS. All of these have militant Muslim minorities of their own that are causing them trouble, Chechens in Russia, Uighurs in China, and so on. In the last few months, the coalition lined up against ISIS has even begun to cut off the one real stream of revenue that ISIS had, namely the black market oil being trucked out to various shady buyers all over the world. I'm sure that the remaining ISIS fighters will go down with great courage, but in the end, which isn't far away now, they almost certainly will lose. 

If you've been following this page, you will know that I bitterly oppose the whole idea of a world caliphate under Sharia law. I hate even the concepts that such a state, hypothetically, would be founded on. The subjugation of women, the execution of apostates, and so on. 

So why am I upset to see that al-Baghdadi and his naive young fighters are on the ropes and ready to be taken out? Because in the last twenty four hours, many "tweeters", as they call themselves, have reveled in mocking and ridiculing him. 

If we really want a better world someday, and we want to start working on it in our daily words and actions now, that baiting is the exact kind of thing that we should not do. Such worldwide baiting of a bunch of idealistic young people, who really believe they are doing the right thing, is completely counterproductive in the long haul. Young people -- young men especially -- all over the world will be reading this gloating and silently vowing that one day they will get even. This instinct for vengeance drives us to actions that only make everything worse, but it is a very old instinct. "It's us against them. Alright, they got this match, but we'll be back, better than before. Just you wait. All of you!!" 

Did ISIS have to be defeated? Yes. Do we have a right to gloat? Absolutely not.

We could all take a lesson from Abraham Lincoln at this point. 150 years ago, near the end of the bloodiest, most destructive war that the US has ever seen (the US Civil War is still larger, in total numbers of dead, wounded, missing, and displaced Americans than all of the other wars the US has been in added together), Lincoln made his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. In it, he basically offered the Southerners who had turned against the Union terms which he was pretty sure they could accept. He did not seek to crush and humiliate them, even though the temptation to do so must have been strong. He knew that large numbers of them were enraged and humiliated and hated him personally with a vehemence that verged on maniacal. 

But he kept his head and did the rational and compassionate thing. He showed all parties on all sides, North and South, that they could put the madness behind them, forgive the mistakes of the past, and get on with building their country. And for the most part, it worked. The US emerged stronger from the ordeal. Even though real civil rights for African-Americans were only half won at that point, the way to realizing them was made clear: reasoning and evidence. Patience and persistence. And faith that decency and sense will win out in the end. 

What we ought to be saying to the young people now serving ISIS, and to those all over the world who support them in their hearts, again and again, calmly and rationally, is something like this: 

"We do not think you are evil; you are simply wrong. The world is moving toward democratic social, ethnic, and religious pluralism -- a lot of different people living together, getting along, and agreeing sometimes to disagree and let a matter alone, if it is at all possible to do so and still keep a civil society going. The dream of a world caliphate under Sharia law - a uniform, obedient population - if it ever were realized, would be a large step backward for humanity, one that would eventually, inevitably have to be reversed. We are coming into a world democracy because we have to. History, if you look at all of it, will tell you that. 

"But I feel that it is important for me to say again that, in spite of all of the atrocities on every side, I don't think you're a monster. I think you have made a mistake. That is all. A mistake. And which of us would dare to say that he or she has never made a mistake? Come home, forgive, and, even if it takes years, let yourselves be forgiven." 


  
                     CBS reporter Holly Williams interviewing captured ISIS fighters