Islamic State a proxy of US, Israel to destroy Islam, PAS MP claims

(Malay Mail Online) – PAS’ Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abd Aziz accused the US and Israel today of being the masterminds behind militant group Islamic State (IS), claiming it is an attempt to erase Islam’s influence in the Middle East.

The Pasir Mas MP also claimed that the recent beheadings of Jordanian, Japanese and US citizens were just a ploy to justify military action against IS in the Middle East by the US and its allies.

“The events of slaughter against Jordan, Japanese nationals and before that US journalist was just a theatre revealed to the word just to justify the action of US to attack IS,” Nik Abduh said in an article posted on his public Facebook page.

“US organised terrorism in the Middle East and other Muslim countries only with the goal to ensure that Islam ends there. IS was nothing more than a proxy working towards that objective.”

Earlier this week, IS published a video showing Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive in a cage, less than a week after it released a video showing the beheading of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

The son of PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Abd Aziz Nik Mat claimed that IS is backed by not only the US and Israel, but also other Arab countries that are trying to maintain the so-called hegemony in the region.

Nik Abduh also claimed that the US decided on backing IS after it failed to find a figurehead to lead Syria instead of Islamists, and could not repeat the coup it allegedly arranged in Egypt during the “Arab Spring” movement.

The PAS MP backed his argument with a revelation by Pakistani daily The Express Tribune last month, in which Yousaf al Salafi, who claimed to be the Pakistan commander of IS, confessed to have allegedly received funds through the US.

Nik Abduh had in September last year paid tribute to jihadist fighter Mohd Lotfi Ariffin, a former member of Kedah PAS who was slain in war-torn Syria.

The National Fatwa Council had decreed in October that joining IS’ struggle is against Islamic teachings, and dying for them does not make one a “martyr” following arrests after arrests of Malaysians plotting to join IS.

In November, the prime minister tabled a White Paper in Parliament titled “Addressing the threat of Islamic State”, in which he outlined the history of IS, the threat the group poses and the impact it has on Malaysians as well as the danger in allowing its skewed Islamic teachings and practice of violence to spread in Malaysia.

According to the White Paper sighted by Malay Mail Online, 39 Malaysians are already in Syria, with 17 of them involved in IS while 22 had joined rival militants Ajnad al-Sham.