Ramat Gan—Kasim Kaz Hafeez, a Paki­stani Muslim supporter of the State of Isra­el and prominent human rights activist, is deeply worried about the advances that ISIS is making in Iraq and Syria: “With the excep­tion of Israel, the minorities in the Middle East have never really enjoyed the full rights afforded to most citizens of the country they reside in. For decades, Kurds and Shias were persecuted in Saddam’s Iraq. Christians have suffered varying degrees of persecution for many years and most of the Jews were forced to leave in the years after the birth of Israel. But today, we see a whole new phe­nomena with ISIS, the savage butchery of an­yone who thinks differently from them, the marking of Christian homes with the Arab letter ‘N’.”

While Kasim acknowledges that the “the numbers slaughtered and the indus­trial scale of the Nazi murder machinery ex­ceeds ISIS,” he stresses, “the ideology of ISIS, this idea of a global caliphate where all must fall in line with their narrow ideological view or be murdered is so dangerous. These peo­ple are driven by ideology. It is not a case of you kill their leadership and they disperse or you invade and militarily defeat them and they’re done. They are determined and see themselves on a mission from G-d and have butchered men, women, and babies indis­criminately and they take great joy in it.”

“Just looking at what they have done in Iraq already, a Muslim country, imagine them rampaging in Europe or North America,” Kasim emphasized. “Slaughter and the irradi­ation of peoples is part of their strategy. They must convert or die and even then, many convert to be later murdered.” Kasim believes that ISIS ideology is worse than the Nazis, be­cause “the ideology that inspires them is a religious supremacist ideology which gives men in their eyes G-d given authority to mur­der to achieve their goals.”

“Radical Islam, like Nazism, a supremacist ideology but radical Islam is not centered in one country, it is not just Iraq and Syria. The ideology has tentacles everywhere,” Kasim noted. “So on the one hand; you have ISIS swallowing up territory. On the other hand, you have people all over the world that will be happy as thousands of civilians are mur­dered in the name of their cause. Also you have people flocking from all over the world to join ISIS. It is a global ideology, which does not need a central government to flourish. Whereas Nazi Germany had its centralized system, which when it collapsed, Nazism as a world force ended. Even if we destroy ISIS, it is liable to crop up elsewhere. Like the Tali­ban were toppled, it wasn’t the end of them or their ideology.”

When asked how he believes the world should respond to the ISIS threat, Kasim re­sponded that military intervention is neces­sary but “we must also draw red lines in the west and not allow hate speech, the propaga­tion of extremist ideologies or organizations to take root. Sadly, western governments are afraid of being called ‘Islamophobic’ so they won’t take action against extremists who hurt ordinary Muslims first and foremost.”

JerusalemOnline asked Kasim if he thinks that Obama would respond seriously to the ISIS threat. He stressed that he really hopes so but “their overall weakness and naivety when it comes to foreign policy makes me fear the worst.” Kasim warned of the con­sequences of what will happen if ISIS is not stopped at this early stage in their growth: “Firstly, we will see genocide and the system­atic eradication of people simply because they are ‘different.’ Secondly, it shows ISIS that they can butcher innocents in full view of the world and the world will not do a thing to intervene.” He also noted that ISIS has their eyes on taking over Jordan as well and that “they are emboldened by every excess they are able to push without a response. Their potential is limitless.”

Kasim also noted that Israel can also help the struggle against ISIS by assisting the Kurdish people fighting on the ground in Iraq against ISIS: “We should be strength­ening the Kurdish people as they are lead­ing the fight against ISIS but also are a loy­al ally. The Kurds and the Peshmerga are the most viable option for Israel, as they are on the ground on the front line. A strong Kurdis­tan is a strong front against terrorism.”

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By Rachel Avraham/www.jerusalemonline.com