Pakistani Daily: Islamic State Has No Relation To Islam, Is ‘Creation of America And Europe’

TEL AVIV – The leading Pakistani daily accused the U.S. and its allies of creating the Islamic State as an excuse for attacking Muslim countries, MEMRI reported Tuesday.

The Urdu-language Roznama Ummat published an editorial titled “Daesh [the Islamic State] can never be an Organization of Muslims,” claiming that Osama bin Laden’s creation of Al-Qaeda was the result of American expansionism and of the American presence in Muslim holy lands, eventually leading to the emergence of IS.

“The rise of Islam has bothered the non-Muslims for the last 1,400 years. So, on the pretext of attacks on its two cities by unknown terrorists [i.e. 9/11], America committed the worst kind of state terrorism in Afghanistan,” the editorial states.

According to the newspaper, before the U.S. invasion, Afghanistan was a bastion of peace and stability as a result of the Taliban’s rule.

“Afghanistan’s Taliban movement sought to establish a peaceful society based on Islamic teachings. The Taliban, in their five-and-a-half-year rule [1996-2001], after purging the country of crime and drugs, had set on such a humanistic path,” the article contends.

Proof of this, the editorial states, was the positive reaction of Western women visiting the country. Whereas initially they arrived in Afghanistan in order to condemn the Taliban’s rule, they instead encountered “peace and respect for humanity” of a kind not seen anywhere else in the world. British journalist Yvonne Ridley (who later became known as Mariam) was so “impressed with the Taliban’s etiquette” that she converted to Islam.

The widely circulated newspaper, which is a staunch supporter of jihadi groups including the Taliban, stated that America believed that the Taliban’s crime was in “creating an Islamic society in which people enjoyed their basic rights, and which could become an example for other societies to follow.”

As a result, the article posits, America spearheaded a massive propaganda campaign targeting Muslims, which consequently led to emergence of the Islamic State.

“From the beginning, [IS’s] acts of mass murder, slitting people’s throats and burning them cruelly, were disliked by the Muslims, and the Muslims did not support them,” the article states.

It then goes on to argue that since IS threatens Muslims more than infidels, it is highly likely that the entire organization was the invention of Western powers.

“Such organizations have no association with Islam,” the article notes, adding that it “is a creation of America and Europe, who, using its barbaric activities as a pretext, can justify their attacks and terrorism against Muslims.”

The article suggests that Western leaders are looking to wage a war pitting Christians against Muslims, attested by the statements of world leaders including Pope Francis, who said that the Paris attacks were part of a world war, and former President George W Bush, who referred to the invasion of Afghanistan as a “crusade.”

The column ends with a call to Muslim leaders to rise up against the West.

“It is the responsibility of the rulers of the Muslim world, and of Muslim religious leaders, intellectuals, and common people, to comprehend the incessant conspiracies against them and to prepare for combat on intellectual and real grounds.”