In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring

I could not believe my eyes when I read the headline: “ISIS Militant ‘Kills His Own Mother’ In Public Raqqa Execution.”

A member of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) killed his own mother in a public execution in the city of Raqqa on Thursday, according to activists.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the Syrian civil war using a wide network of sources on the ground, and Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered, an activist group inside the ISIS-held city, both reported the execution.

Ali Saqr, 20, reportedly killed his 45-year-old mother Leena Al-Qasem “for apostasy” in front of an audience of hundreds of people outside a post office building where she was employed in the city.

I didn’t think the savages of ISIS could stoop any lower than killing innocents in Paris or Istanbul. Clearly, however, I was wrong.

Yet, such savagery shows that these monsters cannot be reading the same Qur’an as the rest of the Muslim faithful. Nowhere in the Qur’an is there ANY whiff of justification for such brutish brutality as killing one’s own mother. The Qur’an is absolutely clear on kindness to parents:

NOW [among the best of the deeds which] We have enjoined upon humanity is goodness towards parents. In pain did his mother bear him, and in pain did she give him birth; and her bearing him and his utter dependence on her took thirty months. (46:15)

And [God says:] ‘We have enjoined upon man goodness towards his parents: his mother bore him by bearing strain upon strain, and his utter dependence on her lasted two years: [hence, O humanity,] be grateful towards Me and towards thy parents, [and remember that] with Me is all journeys’ end. (31:14)

AND WORSHIP God [alone], and do not ascribe divinity, in any way, to aught beside Him. And do good unto your parents, and near of kin, and unto orphans, and the needy, and the neighbor from among your own people, and the neighbor who is a stranger,  and the friend by your side, and the wayfarer, and those whom you rightfully possess. Verily, God does not love any of those who, full of self-conceit, act in a boastful manner; (4:36)

Say: “Come, let me convey unto you what God has [really] forbidden to you: “Do not ascribe divinity, in any way, to aught beside Him; and [do not offend against but, rather,] do good unto your parents; and do not kill your children for fear of poverty – [for] it is We who shall provide sustenance for you as well as for them; and do not commit any shameful deeds, be they open or secret; and do not take any human being’s life-[the life] which God has declared to be sacred -otherwise than in [the pursuit of] justice: this has He enjoined upon you so that you might use your reason; (6:151)

For your Lord has ordained that you shall worship none but Him. And do good unto [thy] parents. Should one of them, or both, attain to old age in thy care, never say “Ugh” to them or scold them, but [always] speak unto them with reverent speech (17:23)

The message is absolutely clear: one must always show kindness to his or her parents: it is given the same weight in the Qur’an as the worship of God Himself. Moreover, we cannot even say “Ugh” or even sigh out of frustration in response to our parents, as verse 17:23 says.

So how in God’s Most Beautiful Name can these savages of ISIS be even remotely considered “Islamic”?

What’s more, even if one’s parents strive to make someone worship other than God Himself, which is the worst thing a person can do in Islam, that person still must treat his parents with kindness:

“‘[Revere thy parents;] yet should they endeavor to make thee ascribe divinity, side by side with Me, to something which thy mind cannot accept [as divine],  them not; but [even then] bear them company in this world’s life with kindness, and follow the path of those who turn towards Me. In the end, unto Me you all must return; and thereupon I shall make you [truly] understand all that you were doing [in life].’ (31:15)

The fact that this mother was trying to get her son to leave ISIS shows that she cared about him; she didn’t want him following this band of sick murderers and savages. And for him to kill her, it reveals a savagery that is truly breathtaking in its brutality.

These guys must be reading a different holy book than the rest of us Muslims, because there is no way any reading of the Qur’an could justify anything that they do, most especially the murder of one’s own parents. And this begs the question, once again:

How in God’s Most Beautiful Name can these savages of ISIS be even remotely considered “Islamic”?