what are their goals exactly? uniting sunni muslims? establishing their territory? showing their power? eliminating others who disagree with them, spreading their message with force? all they're doing is repeating the evil practices of past and future groups/leaders and creating even more animosity towards their religion. how long will it take for our world leaders to effectively eliminate this threat? its bad enough that countries all around the world have do deal with so much, like debt, trash gov't practices, and war, among others (progress in 3rd world countries still seems to be slow, at least for the unfortunate, destitute inhabitants), we dont need a murderous group killing people around the world too.
I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a friend who lives in lebanon, who was brought up muslim and is surrounded by muslims, but also has been interacting with "the west" through the internet for a long time, so he's familiar with both.
One thing he pointed out was that, comparing the west to the middle east, the west is
far less religious on average, and so because of that, the west's culture assumes that there must always be an ulterior motive behind something. He compares this to the middle east, which is poor as dirt (besides the few rich oil princes), and in general religion is
much stronger in cultures that are poorer. (This is similar to the philippines, which I've visited, which felt like they take their christianity much more seriously than the majority west does, and it's also a poor country)
His argument is that in these poor countries, people flock more to religion as a source of hope, to help give their lives meaning and purpose. Whereas in richer countries like the west, it's much easier to get out of poverty, support yourself, and accomplish what you want in life without turning to blind faith.
So for most of these people in the middle east, there is no ulterior motive like you mentioned. They just believe in their religion
really really strongly, and when you have a religion that says things like "all non believers must perish" and "if you die while killing non believers, you will be cleared of all sin and get into heaven" and paint a picture about how wonderful heaven is, you've basically got a recipe for something resembling jihad -- their version of the crusades.
I thought that was interesting so I wanted to share it.
Disclaimer: this is his opinion and not my own
