Stop saying ISIS has ‘nothing to do with Islam’, says Archbishop

Nov 24, 2016 by

by Tim Dieppe, Christian Concern:

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said it is time to stop repeating the popular politically correct mantra that ISIS has “nothing to do with Islam”. In a speech delivered in Paris last week, during a ceremony in which he was awarded an honorary doctorate, he argued that “If we treat religiously-motivated violence solely as a security issue, or a political issue, then it will be incredibly difficult – probably impossible – to overcome it.” He went on to say: “Until religious leaders stand up and take responsibility for the actions of those who do things in the name of their religion, we will see no resolution” – words of sense and truth from the Archbishop which prompted a number of headlines delighting in the politically incorrect nature of his comments.

This follows calls from several high profile figures for people not to use the term ‘Islamic State’. Last year, then Prime Minister David Cameron criticised the BBC for using the term ‘Islamic State’, and a letter signed by more than 120 MPs was sent to the BBC director general complaining about its use of the term. The BBC’s Head of Religion and Ethics however, Professor Aaqil Ahmed, himself a Muslim, argued earlier this year that “The Islamic State are Muslims and their doctrine is Islamic.”

It is worth clarifying what is meant by saying that ‘Islamic State is Islamic’. Clearly, we do not mean that Islamic Sate represents most Muslims. A minority of Muslims support Islamic State, though not an insignificant minority. According to the ICM Survey of Muslims in Britain, 7% supported the objective to create an Islamic State, and 3% supported the way in which ISIS is establishing a Caliphate. From a population of 2.7m Muslims, that would make 80,000 people supporting ISIS in the UK alone.

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