UC Santa Barbara Professors Turn History on its Head

Hat tip The Bottom Line


“A historical perspective gives us the tools to reject the dangerous claim that ISIS is the inevitable outcome of Islam,” said University of California, Santa Barbara assistant professor Sherene Seikaly, during a talk entitled “ISIS: A Historical Perspective,” held on May 20 in Buchanan Hall.

On May 20, two UC Santa Barbara professors gave a presentation before a room full of young heads filled with mush and told them that all this stuff happening with ISIS didn't happen in a vacuum.

It is the fault of the US. That's right. It is all part of a "broader ecology of cruelty".

https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2015/05/ucsb-professors-give-historical-perspective-on-isis/comment-page-1#comment-2139102

“Sectarianism didn’t just happen,” said Sabra. “People didn’t automatically go for a gun and start shooting people of a different ethnicity or religion.”

That's right. ISIS is only beheading people and burning them alive because we toppled Saddam Hussein. They are killing Christians and Yazidis because we toppled Saddam Hussein. The Shia and Sunnis are killing each other because we toppled Saddam Hussein. Never mind the fact that they have been at each other's throats since the 7th century, when Mohammad died and they split over who should have succeeded him.

And don't feel sorry for that Jordanian pilot who ISIS burned alive. Blame Jordan for attacking ISIS. Never mind the thousands of Muslims from all over the world who have flocked to Syria and Iraq to do battle against those two respective governments.

"Seikaly began her portion of the talk by pointing to the U.S. use of depleted uranium in the battle of Fallujah, which she noted caused high rates of cancers, like leukemia, and birth defects than were found in a post-nuclear Nagasaki."

Is that right?

You may buy into that "broader ecology of cruelty" that Professor Sherene Seikaly is talking about. Me? I prefer to take the butchers of ISIS at their word when they tell us why they  are cutting people's heads off or burning them alive. They are doing it for the greater glory of Islam, not in memory of Saddam Hussein, who after all, never killed his enemies in the name of religion.

Here is the bottom line: As long as the Middle East has apologists like Sherene Seikaly and Adam Sabra to explain these things away as being the fault of others, nobody ever has to accept responsibility for the maladies and the failures of that region of the world. I mean, look at the result:

“People understand vaguely what ISIS is and what they’re doing but not remotely as much as to where they came from and the underlying tendencies that gave rise to such an explosive and global force,” said Stanton, “this isn’t just a single, political, event but rather it’s the fruition of years and years of disparate historical forces manifesting themselves in violence.”