Vadodara: An
Oxford university
historian has brushed aside threat perceptions of dreaded terrorist group
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (
ISIS), who have gained infamy for their killing methods, in India.
Faisal Devji, a historian who specializes in studies of Islam, globalization, violence and ethics said here on Tuesday that ISIS will soon be demolished due to concerted military action against them. Devji, a university reader in Modern South Asian History at Oxford University, was in city to deliver a lecture on inheritance of ISIS at city-based
Balvant Parekh Centre
for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences.
“The propaganda of ISIS is to broadcast its power more than it actually is. Few Indians who are joining ISIS are not out of victimization. Most of them are reasonably educated and don’t come from impoverished background,” said Devji, who has his roots in Gujarat.
“They are drawn by ISIS idealism about setting up of an Islamic society that is run by itself based on Islamic laws,” he said.
Devji also said that Al Qaeda and the ISIS are very different. He said, “Al Qaeda always targeted the western powers and their ideologies while the real enemy of ISIS is within the Islamic community itself. The ISIS is fighting for creating new kind of Islamic figure." Elaborating his argument, he said: “The Islamic State wants to create a state based on theology and Islamic laws. It wants to replace politics with God and because of this they are opposed to modern Muslim thinkers. The ISIS believes that they have simply replaced the colonial powers.”
“ISIS has been around because of regional power struggles between the countries in the Middle-East. The involvement of small and big powers in the region in sponsoring different groups that has kept ISIS alive,” he said.
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