Reading the Islamic State's Dabiq Magazine
Led Zeppelin, the iconic rock band from the late 60’s and beyond, have a song called, Ramble On. It is the title that sums up the Islamic State’s slick English publication called Dabiq. Dabiq is a town near Aleppo, Syria, where IS thinks the “clash of civilizations” between Western Christians and Islam will happen as stated in Muslim Malahim. The name of this final battle that ends the world before Christ returns is Armageddon. Armageddon will occur in the area of Megiddo, near the Sea of Galilee. According to Muslim Malahim, the Christians (referred to by IS as Crusaders) will battle against Muslims from Medina and defeat them. Then, Constantinople will be taken over peacefully and the Anti-Christ destroyed. So, IS is trying the lure the Crusaders to that area, a town of only 3000, 10 miles from Turkey. Yah right!
The Dabiq publication is widely available on the Internet. It is over 50 pages and is very well produced and slick. It is probably done by its members in Europe somewhere. But, having never seen a copy of it, I was amazed that anyone who reads it could be converted from a nice Western culture and lifestyle to the radical, minimalist, Sharia-Islamic way of life that is polar opposite.
To the average Westerner reader, who has no pre-disposed Islamic preference, the magazine is literally a rambling piece of propaganda supporting why IS does what it does. The writing is very dry, professorially-like, littered with Arabic or Islamic words of endearment, practices, or names. To the average English reader, it ends up being all gibberish. The read is very tedious. The target audience must be the educated because reading and understanding it is difficult since none of the Arabic-Islamic terms are defined when you come upon them.
Of course, everything the talk about is selectively supported by the Quran with various isolate passages that by themselves, could be used for any purpose. I guess in another era, one can see how this might be a piece of Soviet literature trying to enlist supporters, as it is very well done.
Still, unless a person already is demented or has been already influenced by devout Islamic extremists, already hates Western culture because of personal loss, anger, injustice, jealousy and other bad human emotions, it is hard for one to think Dabiq would convert anyone alone. So, I suspect that the enticements for the many who go to join IS are material things or personal gratification of being important to a cause. The thought of raping women, beheading innocent, killing hundreds, causing destruction of cultural artifacts, being in command, is the appeal to their ego because it is, after all, following God’s word, right? LOL.
To anyone else, Dabiq is a ramble on and boring.