An Open Letter To ISIS/ISIL

Last night, some person or persons, acting in your name, drove a truck into a concert full of kids in Manchester, England. 

Really. Kids. These were people not doing anything to you, not thinking about religion, certainly not thinking about your religion. In fact, they were probably thinking of nothing much but music, joy, and dancing. On what basis, other than hate, can you justify this? Are you against joy, dancing, or children? 

Maybe you don’t like girls/women who sing. Everybody’s a critic. I know the internet is full of trolls who feel like they have the right to complain about the arts, but I don’t like them, either. I like you less. The singer at the concert you bombed said she was “so sorry”, but — as one who works with victims all the time — I can assure her that she did nothing wrong. She didn’t drive a bomb into her concert. You did. 

Maybe you don’t like women in general. I don’t know about where you’re from, but here women are pretty much a necessity for life. Further, if teenage girls are who you’re targeting, does that mean that you perceive them as some kind of threat to your cause? I know that they’re loud, but I don’t find them scary in any way. If they scare you, you’ve got problems already that bombs aren’t going to solve.

In short, this target serves no political objective. It does make us like you even less and it promotes revenge fantasies. For instance, what if we found out where the bomber was from and we drove a truck into his village and blew it up? And what if we did it every single time this happened? Yes, I’m capable of revenge fantasies, but I don’t engage them because I like kids. Once your children figure out that I won’t hurt them, but you will, guess who wins? Oh, well.

About your goals: From what I hear, you want to establish an Islamic religious state somewhere.  I don’t think it’s going to work — not because of anything I say or do — but because you can’t build anything. You can only destroy, as far as I can see. We have people in our country that think you can build with hate and by saying “no” to every positive idea expressed. I’m not sure if you read our newspapers, but if you do, you will see that they are going to fall soon as well.  Killing creative people, while building killers will ultimately lead to your destruction.

I don’t know much about Islam, nor do I care to, if this is what it looks like. What I do know something about is the One you call Allah. That One is all about love. That One is all about Strength, yes, but not about killing, or murder of innocents. The One who created the Universe isn’t much interested in destroying it. If the One you believe in is against evil, then ultimately I wouldn’t want to be you, because what you have done is evil, and you and I both know it. In our scriptures, ” ‘Vengence is  mine’, says the Lord”. I don’t even have to do anything to fix the situation. The One Who Establishes Justice will. 

To sum up, this attack was a really bad idea. By targeting people who did nothing to you, you have called attention to yourself, and it’s not the good kind of attention. You haven’t hit a military target, you haven’t won anyone to your cause, and your God isn’t very happy with you. You might try another series of techniques if you want to build a state that gives glory to Allah. This one’s not working.  In the end, only kindness matters. 
Resisting with Peace,

John