Brutality a sign that militants are heeding the war call:

THE latest spate of deadly attacks by hard-line Islamist terrorists on tourists at a beach in Tunisia, worshippers at a mosque in Kuwait, an American industrial chemical plant in France a Kurdish village in Syria and a village in Somalia have sent shockwaves across the globe.

While all the attacks displayed a brutal disregard for the lives of those viewed by the Islamic State as infidels or apostates, the Syrian attack left the highest death toll.

There, Islamic State fighters, among them three suicide bombers, killed at least 145 civilians in an attack on the Syrian town of Kobane and a nearby village.

This brutality during Ramadaan, the Muslim month of prayer and fasting, is a sign that the Islamic State militants are heeding the call made by spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani for Muslims to “embark and haste toward jihad (war)” and to “rush and make Ramadaan a month of disasters for the infidels”.

Those Muslims viewed as not abiding by the strict prescripts of Islamic State law such as the more than two dozen Kuwaiti worshippers the 145 Syrian Kurds and 50 Somalians are as much victims of the unholy wrath of the militants as so-called Western infidels.

This hatred and violence has to be fought by all peace lovers if we do not want our world to be dragged back into the dark ages of slavery, stoning and suicide bombs which are the hallmarks of the fundamentalist mindset.

A good place to start would be for all non-Muslims to stop the generalised stigmatisation and alienation of Muslims which drives young people to join the ranks of the Islamic State.

We should support the call by over 100 Muslim scholars and clergymen from all over the world who released an address to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, spelling out in 24 points that the self-proclaimed caliph and his army have, through their acts of violence, violated fundamental principles of Islam.

They point out that such acts as killing of the innocent, prisoners and emissaries (journalists included), denying women and children their rights, the re-introduction of slavery, torture, harming or mistreating believers of other religions of the Scripture, starting armed insurrection, declaring caliphate “without consensus from all Muslims”, and even “ignoring the reality of contemporary times”, are actually forbidden in Islam.

Simply put, IS are a group of mass murderers masquerading as believers. The whole world needs to stop them in their apocalyptic tracks.