High Profile Islamic Cleric: ISIS Is a "Zionist Plot"

Now, there's a dude who needs to brush up on his Quranic verses (see previous post):

The head of Egypt's Al-Azhar University, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, on Monday said that so-called 'Islamic State' (IS) militants are "criminals" who serve a "Zionist" plot to "destroy the Arab world." 

Complaining that the IS has "tarnished" the image of Muslims to the world, al-Tayyeb was quoted by Agence France Presse (AFP) saying "These fundamentalist terrorist groups, whatever their names, and their backers are colonial creations that serve Zionism in its plot to destroy the Arab world." 

The Al-Azhar imam reiterated the words of Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam and Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh who called the IS militants aggressors who abuse people’s lives, possessions and honor...

"Abusing people's lives, possessions and honour"--hey, isn't that what Islam's Ur-jihadis did before they were stopped by Charles Martel?



Update: Is the Sheikh's ostensible disgust for ISIS a function of an Islamic distaste for the "Arab Thermidor" that Conrad Black predicts here?

Doubtful.

If that were the case, the Sheikh would have to repudiate the warfare undertaken by Islam's founder, which was as bloody--and as ISIS-like--as it gets. As always, it's far easier to project your own bloody-mindedness onto a convenient scapegoat than to come to terms with the violence intrinsic to your own belief system.