Loading ...Arab American Institute President: ISIS ‘Has Done More Horrible Things to Arabs Than It Has to Anyone Else’
By Melanie Hunter
CSNnews.com
James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, told C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Tuesday that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has done more harm to Arabs than anyone else.
“It’s a horrendous movement and has done more horrible things to Arabs than it has to anyone else. The Christians in the Middle East are being removed from their ancestral homes. Other minorities–Sunni Muslims–who don’t adhere to the ideology of ISIS are being tormented and persecuted and killed,” said Zogby.
Christians have been specifically targeted by ISIS, including Syrian Christians, who are Arab.
Zogby was responding to a question someone asked on Twitter, asking Zogby to condemn ISIS.
“Of course I condemn it, and there’s a line in the New Testament about those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. The fact is we condemn it all the time,” said Zogby. “Obviously, we do, because it’s a horrendous movement and has done more horrible things to Arabs than it has to anyone else.
“The Christians in the Middle East are being removed from their ancestral homes. Other minorities – Sunni Muslims – who don’t adhere to the ideology of ISIS are being tormented and persecuted and killed. Of course we condemn it. The fact is that that’s not the issue,” he said.
“The issue is what are we doing about stopping it, and what you have in the Arab world is a real growing consensus,” he said, adding that a poll his group recently released showed “overwhelming majorities” in the Arab world denounce the ISIS “movement.
According to the UK Mirror, Daesh is another term for ISIS, but it’s one that the terrorist group does not like, because it is similar to the Arabic words ‘Daes,’ which means ‘one who crushes something underfoot” or ‘Dahes,’ which translates to “one who sows discord.”
A poll released in November, titled, “Middle East 2015 Current and Future Challenges,” surveyed 7,400 adults in six Arab countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and UAE) and Iran and Turkey through face-to-face interviews during the month of September.
“Daesh is considered a significant factor in causing the Iraqi conflict by at least nine in 10 respondents in the UAE (100%), Egypt (97%), Turkey (94%), and Saudi Arabia (91%), followed by large majorities in Iran (88%), Lebanon (83%), and Jordan (76%), and 61% in Iraq itself,” the report stated.
“While there is little difference of opinion between Sunni and Shia respondents in Lebanon related to this factor (Sunni: 77% vs. Shia: 86%), there is considerable distance between the sects in Iraq, with 29% of Sunnis, 74% of Shia, and 60% of Kurds saying ‘Sunni extremist groups like al Qaeda and Daesh’ are a significant factor in causing the conflict in Iraq,” the report added.
Source: www.cnsnews.com