One For All And All For One

"It is a state where the Arab and non-Arab, the white man and black man, the easterner and westerner are all brothers. Muslims, rush to your state. Yes, it is your state. Rush, because Syria is not for the Syrians, and Iraq is not for the Iraqis. The Earth is Allah's."
"In this virtuous month or in any other month, there is no need better than jihad in the path of Allah, so take advantage of this opportunity and walk the path of your righteous predecessors."
"So, to arms, to arms, soldier of the Islamic state, fight, fight."
"The time has come for you to free yourself from the shackles of weakness and stand in the fact of tyranny."
Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Caliph, Islamic State

What lofty sentiments; an all-inclusive invitation for Muslims to become part of history in the making. The rebirth of Islam as the only true faith, glorious in its vision and unmatched in its holy sanctity. If Muslims have worshipped the Prophet Mohammed since the 7th Century it is finally time in the 21th Century to worship Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the Caliph, the commander in spirit of all he surveys from his Middle East perch.

What he surveys will not long be confined to the Middle East, since the Islamic State aspires far more broadly to represent Islam throughout the world.

The caliphate of the Islamic State is, according to its unabashed ruler whose time has come, a pluralist, all-inclusive, safe, secure, colour-and-tribal-blind haven for true Islam, welcoming all those who have been exhorted to jihad and who have been eager to respond, willing to sacrifice themselves as martyrs for Allah in the unparalleled vision of a unifying, all-encompassing, all-powerful worldwide state of Islam.

And, as pure in its intent as was the Islam that the Prophet Mohammed initiated, so too is this one. Where Mohammed ventured forth with steed and sword to evangelize a reluctant world of Bedouin tribesmen toward Islam, where he slaughtered en masse those who stubbornly clung to their outdated versions of godliness and religious devotion refusing the generous invitation to embrace Islam in absolute surrender, the most recent vision of accomplished Islamism too lavishly slaughters the unbelievers.

Photos taken of the parade also showed an Islamic State poster showing a woman covered from head to toe in strict Islamic fashion. (Image source: Twitter)

Muslims are urged by their new all-powerful caliph to rise up against their 'oppressors'. All the world's Muslims, the great 1.3-billion Ummah is enjoined to pledge undying allegiance to the self-proclaimed caliph, Al-Baghdadi. From a secretive Iraqi functionary to the world's most powerful draw for jihad-embracing Muslims, quite the accomplishment, obviously servicing a desire emanating from among a vast pool of dissatisfied, disquieted, jihadis in a vast upheaval of mental disequilibrium.

Jihadi fighters ride a tank and wave flags in the Raqqa parade. (Image source: Twitter)

And in what is left of Iraq, Iraqi Shiites balk at surrendering their domination of the country's politics to include Iraqi Sunnis and Kurds as equal partners in the country's future. The Iraqi military has regrouped, and persuaded itself it can manage to stem the tide of the Sunni Islamist onslaught slavering at the gates of Baghdad. Not if General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force has anything to say about Sunni Islamists' intentions.

But there is Caliph Al-Baghdadi, exhorting the escalation of fighting during the holy month of Ramadan, for all Muslims regardless of nationality to join the Islamic State for it "will return your dignity, might, rights and leadership". One can only wonder whether the man ever read George Orwell, for he is most certainly an expert on doublespeak; perhaps not so great a feat since obfuscation, and doublespeak along with meaningless rhetorical oratory is the hallmark of Arab/Muslim parlance.

And indeed, the Islamist horde is responding when they've been enjoined "to fight, to fight", capturing the town of Boukamal near the Iraqi border, its fighters advancing toward Shuheil, to the northwest, a stronghold of the Nusra Front, causing thousands of Shuheil's residents to flee.

In Raqqa, a triumphant parade took place yesterday in celebration of the declaration of the Islamic State. Where Islamist (ISSA) Fighters displayed U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, tanks and armoured personnel carriers along with a flatbed truck carrying a Scud missile. Look, look at how powerful we are, and tremble!

Islamist militants paraded military equipment, including a Scud missile in Raqqa, Syria. (Image source: Twitter)

And in Baghdad? The new unity parliament became deadlocked in disunity two hours into its first session. Minority Sunnis and Kurds walked out; so much for the swift formation of a more representative government capable of meeting the challenge that so directly threatens the existence of Iraq.