Yes, ISIL is a terror-based insurgent army that seeks to establish a Caliphate, but the group's actual end goal is far from political: ISIL believes that, through jihad, it will bring about the Day of Judgment. This is not true Islam.
Interpretation
ISIL's motives are rooted in extremist beliefs rather than political objectives, misrepresenting true Islam.
Malcolm Nance's quote emphasizes that while ISIL, as a terror-based insurgent group, claims to pursue political goals through jihad, their true aspiration is to trigger what they perceive as an apocalyptic reckoning. Nance distinguishes their violent interpretations from the core tenets of Islam, firmly stating that their actions misrepresent the religion they claim to uphold.
In practice
In a discussion about terrorism at a university, this quote could be used to differentiate between extremist views and mainstream beliefs.
I come from an African-American family that is predominantly Muslim. I have had to covertly operate in parts of the Middle East and Africa. I've lived a Muslim life and prayed in Mosques, Husseiniyahs, and shrines where needed. One must respect Islam to understand Islam. I've read the Quran through and through a half dozen times.
Waterboarding should never be used as an interrogation tool. It is beneath our values.
I know waterboarding is torture because I have been on the giving and receiving end of the practice.
I saw the waterboarding device in Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh and did not see another until I was strapped down on an identical one at SERE. Waterboarding was administered as a 'stress demonstrator' to show that an enemy could make one say anything. And one does.
I don't care how nice one is to you, the thing you must always remember is that almost never does he really see you as he sees himself, as he sees his own kind.
In other words: It seems to me that I will always be happy in the place where I am not. Or, more bluntly: Wherever I am not is the place where I am myself. Or else, taking the bull by the horns: Anywhere out of the world.
For before this I was born once a boy, and a maiden, and a plant, and a bird, and a darting fish in the sea.
In our day we don't allow a hundred and thirty years to elapse between glimpses of a marvel. If somebody should discover a creek in the county next to the one that the North Pole is in, Europe and America would start fifteen costly expeditions thither; one to explore the creek, and the other fourteen to hunt for each other.
Change of state is not the point; recognizing the Changeless is the point, recognizing primordial Emptiness is the point, and if you are breathing and vaguely awake, that state of consciousness will do just fine.
All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. ... Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.
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