During an interview on on CNN’s Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield, the Center on Global Policy’s Haroon Moghul called ISIS’s terror attack on the Saudi holy site of Medina “the most odious or egregious example of their violence.” According to Moghul, this attack was “the Rubicon,” where Muslims would have to make decisions about ISIS. Banfield didn’t question him about this phraseology.
Moghul’s overarching point, that such an attack from anyone claiming to be a Muslim was significant (Medina is one of the holiest cities in Islam), is legitimate, but calling the attack the “most odious” in ISIS history seems clumsy at best. “Five Saudi troops were killed in the attack and five others wounded,” in the attack outside a the mosque in Medina where the Muslim prophet Muhammad is buried, according to CBS News.
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Moghul also wrote an op-ed on CNN.com on the same topic, which was referenced in the interview, but didn’t refer to the attack as the worst by ISIS.
A partial transcript follows:
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD: Ok. So, that's the next point I need to ask you. And that is: if they happen to be inspiring people, like the guy who blew himself -- well, who blew away all those people in Orlando, and the two in San Bernardino, is this the kind of brand mulching, I mean destruction that wrecks your inspirational value? Cause if they're losing their real estate, and they're going to lose the hearts and minds of Americans who just don't know what ISIS stands for anymore if you're killing good Muslims who are Shia and Sunni alike, are they going to stop their ability to recruit around the world because people are really going to be tuned out by this?
HAROON MOGHUL (Senior Fellow, Center on Global Policy): I think Medina was kind of like the Rubicon in a way, it's the most odious or egregious example of their [ISIS's] violence.
BANFIELD: Tipping point?
MOGHUL: It is a tipping point. There's a great scene, if I can quote Lord of the Rings, where Frodo's about-- he's kind of sick of everything and he says 'I wish it needn't have happened in my time,' he's tired of the ring. And Gandalf says, so do I, so do all who live to see such times. But that's not for them to decide. I think for a lot of Muslims now we realize that, even though it's unfair that we get blamed for extremism, extremism wants to kill us. So we have to fight back, because it is an existential struggle, it is an existential contest.
