Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Latest IS claims of heroism cannot be taken seriously, surely

As the atrocities perpetrated by so-called Muslims persist into this new year - most recently with the mass shooting in an Istanbul nightclub and the car bomb in eastern Baghdad - Islamic State (IS) continues to jump at every opportunity to claim them as their own.
Now, I am reasonably sure that the vast majority of these occurrences are carried out by misguided individuals, often mentally unbalanced, with no affiliation to IS whatsoever. Even those who belatedly express some admiration for IS on social media can in no way be considered to be working for or organized by IS. How much organization does it take to drive a truck into a crowd, or to blast away at a party with a sub-machine gun? All that requires is a complete lack of empathy and a disregard for human life.
IS are happy to take "credit" for such events that are, in reality, nothing to do with them, presumably just because they see it as furthering their cause in some inexplicable way, and because it demonstrates their ability and willingness to strike anywhere and everywhere and in any manner. This they see as a good thing, even though it is clear to everyone else that killing a bunch of innocent party-goers or shoppers actually achieves absolutely nothing.
I just wonder, though, whether they might not have overreached themselves recently, by claiming that the Istanbul shootings were carried out by a "heroic soldier of the caliphate". Surely it can only be a matter of time before IS supporters recognize the DoubleSpeak involved in pronouncements of this kind, that killing dozens of unarmed and unprepared civilians in a nightclub cannot possibly be described as heroic by any stretch of a warped imagination. Or am I just being naive again?

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