by Kham on February 6th, 2017, 3:21 am
Just in case any readers are thinking these ISIS characters are Arabs, think about this. I have asked several native Arab speakers, from many different countries, if they could tell the middle eastern region of the people portrayed as ISIS in the media by their Arabic accents. Made my friends listen to ISIS clips where people were speaking in Arabic. Was trying to find out which middle eastern country ISIS members are really from but instead, to my surprise, the response was that those ISIS people in the media sound just like Americans speaking in Arabic. ISIS members all have American accents when they speak Arabic!
ISIS people, as seen in the media, are Americans speaking in Arabic. ISIS are not Arabs, they are Americans. Don't believe me, go ask a native Arabic speaker to identify the region of ISIS by their accent.
As Americans, we would not recognize any regional accent of anyone portrayed as an Arab at all as it all sounds so, well, foreign. It appears ISIS is a nice little piece of theater.
In addition, it has been said by me more than once but bears repeating, Al-Quaida, ISIS, DASH or what ever Muslim terror group you would like is completely missing from the daily lives of dozens and dozens of Arabs I have queried both here in America and back home. "Ever heard of a neighbor joining ISIS, or someone you knew from school?" "Are mothers afraid their kids will join ISIS?" "Do you know anyone who got injured by ISIS?" No, no and no, respectively, are always the responses. Just like you and I have no idea how to contact or meet up with ISIS, where they are, or who they are, neither do Arabs. ISIS is not a discussion in any Arabs lives, except for when the mediasphere has stories about it. Fear from terror groups, either from getting attacked or children joining up, is non-existent in daily lives of Arabs.
Six degrees of separation dictates that someone would have some real contact with ISIS if ISIS were a real Arab-born terror group. Arabs know as much as Americans about ISIS only because we all watch the same stories in the nightly news that make up the global motion picture stage show. Arabs are also wondering who the hell is ISIS and where did they come from.