“…whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption done in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely.” - Chapter 5, Verse 32 of the Qur’an
ISIS claimed many “victories” in the last month: the shooting of 49 people in Orlando, Florida on June 12th, the bombing of 44 people in Istanbul, Turkey on June 29th, the stabbing and hacking to death of 21 people in Dhaka, Bangladesh on July 1st. That is without mentioning the smaller-scale attacks: the shooting of a Christian minister in Egypt on June 30th, the stabbing of a police captain in France on June 13th, the hacking to death of a Hindu priest in Bangladesh on June 7th.
To many, ISIS appears to be winning. Alarmist tweets and Facebook posts about the existential threat of ISIS to America dominates my newsfeeds; every new act of violence and crime is quickly linked to ISIS; political parties on both sides have fine-tuned the fear to a fever-pitch, offering salvation from the evil horde only if their candidate is elected. This fear has blinded us to a bright, discreet truth:
ISIS is losing.
The Islamic State has lost 45 percent of its territory in Iraq and 20 percent of its territory in Syria. In ISIS’ north, the Kurds, a moderate Islamic people from northern Iraq, pressure ISIS forces and choke several key supply routes; in the west, a Syrian coalition of rebels march within 20 miles of Raqqa, ISIS’ base of operations in Syria; in the south, less than a month ago, the Iraqi army liberated the city of Fallujah, a city that has been in ISIS’ control since the January of 2014; and, from the sky, the US decimates ISIS oilfields, the primary source of their income, with airstrikes.
Now, many may be wondering: if ISIS is losing, why are terrorist attacks increasing? I invite you to see the increased terrorists attack as symptoms of ISIS’ increasing weakness. These attacks reflect the desperation of the Islamic State as they vainly attempt to maintain control over their rapidly shrinking territory. They are resorting to acts of fears to convince the world that they remain powerful. But, we must see through this ruse. ISIS has no allies and has alienated the majority of Muslims around the world. After all, the majority of violence perpetuated by ISIS members has been against other Muslims. These attacks are horrific, evil, and demonstrate the depravity at the center of the Islamic State's black heart. But, they are occurring only because ISIS is in retreat. These attacks are their dying gasp.
I submitted this article with a heavy heart today. My country and home state are racked with violence as the back-and-forth of police and civilian killings escalates. I did not want to post this article because I felt as if I were redirecting attention away from the incredibly important issues occurring within our own borders. But, this article’s sentiment needs to be heard.
Evil is not winning.
Even though violence seems to reign throughout the world, and even inside the United States, we cannot allow ourselves to give into that old, tantalizing sense of despair. Evildoers want this. They want us to be afraid of one another, to be suspicious of the outsider, to barricade ourselves from the rest of the world. But, to give into this fear is to let evil win. The most profound resistance to evil is hope. It does not matter whether this evil manifests itself as terrorist states, cop-killers or racist police; our obligation remains the same. We must not give into hate, fear, or violence. Those are the tools of the enemy; they have no place in our arsenal. Hope is not a privilege to be occasionally exercised; hope is a necessity to be continually lived.
