Bruce Fenton 3 September What is a Caliphate?

Bruce Fenton
3 September

What is a Caliphate

A “caliphate” is Islamic Empire led by a political and religious leader known as the “Caliph” the first major Caliphate was the Rashidun Caliphate in 632, the last one was the Ottoman Caliphate which started in 1453, nearly half a century before Columbus’s journey.
The IS / ISIS / ISIL forces calling themselves a “Caliphate” doesn’t remotely make it true. It would be similar to the KKK calling themselves a “North American White Empire” or the Christian terrorist group the Lords Resistance Army of Uganda calling themselves the “Holy Roman Empire Reborn” and the leader naming himself “Emperor Constantine II”.
The coordinated government and media hype surrounding ISIS is highly suspect. From June to August of 2014 we have a group which almost no one had heard of being portrayed as if it was a national level threat to our way of life. As with Al Qaida being presented as a “sophisticated global threat” we have been told in a string of DoD and other official appearances on morning shows and talk radio that ISIS is a danger to us. The actual evidence is scarce. The DoD points to ISISs “ability to adapt”, it’s “effective use of social media” and generic, non-scientific phrases like the Eric Holder stating the prospect of them invading is “more frightening than anything I think I’ve seen as attorney general”.
We don’t see solid, reliable numbers about how many members they have or objective measurements of the threat and how it could reach us in America. We see horrible, although very isolated incidents of murders purported to be by ISIS. These murders number in the hundreds….roughly similar amounts to that caused by gang violence in the US and not statistically relevant.
If we try to remain objective and ask questions like “Why is this group suddenly a threat to the way of life of Americans?” “What mechanism do they have to harm us?” and so on, the answers are often not logic driven but emotion driven. People will point to the horrible atrocities which are credited to ISIS but often fail to answer the bigger picture Constitutional questions. This is a mistake we’ve made before.
Basically the term “caliphate” is being used by the government and media because it inspires fear and gives people the impression they are knowledgeable about the issues.
Overall, it makes a lot of sense to remain cautious about what government says, especially in matters of war. Our recent track record has been poor.
http://www.fentonreport.com/politics/isis-and-the-definition-of-a-caliphate