“They have been practicing savagery for a very simple reason: to strike fear in their enemy,” says Abdel Bari Atwan.
The Qur’an says: “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know whom Allah knows.” (Qur’an 8:60)
“Abdel Bari Atwan: ISIS Savagery Comes from Islamic History; The West Likely to ‘Contain’ ISIS Like It Contained the IRA and Arafat,” MEMRI, December 15, 2015:
In a December 15 lecture about ISIS at the American University in Beirut, Abdel Bari Atwan, former editor-in-chief of “Al-Quds Al-Arabi” and the current editor-in-chief of “Al-Rai Al-Youm” rejected common claims that the savagery of ISIS is alien to Islam, presenting examples of similar conduct from Islamic history. Atwan said that the West faces two options: to contain ISIS or to destroy it. The former is more likely than the latter, he added. The West always starts by trying to destroy organizations that it considers to be terrorist and ends up negotiating with them, Atwan said, citing the Taliban, the PLO, and the IRA as prominent examples.