West Gave Rise to Terrorism to Tarnish Image of Islam: Sheikh Issa Qassem

Bahrain’s Shiite leader Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Ahmed Qassem referred to the phenomenon of terrorism as the West’s offspring in the region, saying that it has been using terrorism to tarnish the image of Islam.

Hegemonic powers, using their puppet governments in the Middle East, spread the phenomenon to undermine Islam and cause a rift in the Muslim community, the Bahraini leader said on Thursday.

The Global Arrogance tried to use terrorism as a means to achieve its “dirty goals”, Sheikh Qassem said, but added that it has now backfired and turned to a threat against the hegemonic powers themselves.

He also questioned the West's so-called fight against terrorism, saying that there is no sign showing it is a serious one.

Their campaign against terror would not be believable unless the political conditions are improved and justice would become the main criterion in dealing with Muslim nations, the senior cleric stressed.

International observers have frequently raised the issue of how serious the US-led coalition’s so-called fight against terrorism is, mostly bringing evidence showing that the West’s claims are absurd.

In October, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US-led coalition against the ISIL (Daesh) terrorist group has failed to accomplish its declared mission in Iraq and Syria for it has never been serious in fighting the group.

“We support anybody’s involvement against Daesh, provided that it’s serious. The problem with the international coalition was that it was never serious, because it had political inhibitions against hitting Daesh, because they believe that hitting Daesh before they have a solution for (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad would help Bashar. So there is just a show going on, and that is why the ability of Daesh has not even been dented over the past year,” the Iranian foreign minister said in an interview with The New Yorker.


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