One of the most heavily debated questions surrounding Islamic terrorism dating back to 9-11 or even before is, why do they hate us? It’s been asked continually in foreign policy think tanks and around kitchen tables across the nation. Some conservative authors have found the answer so obvious that they’ve grown frustrated with liberal pundits arguing the question. I could list the many theories which have been offered to explain the phenomenon, but as of this week it seems there’s no need for that. In the latest edition of the glossy ISIS magazine they publish, they explain it for those who are still confused. (Fox News)

In the new edition of its full-color, glossy magazine, ISIS mocks those who claim Islam is a peaceful religion, and even wades into the controversy surrounding Donald Trump and the parents of a dead Muslim U.S. soldier.

The 15th issue of Dabiq, published on July 31, is titled “Break The Cross” and appears to be primarily directed at those that ISIS considers its enemies, particularly Christians. One section is devoted to the words and actions of Pope Francis and is headlined “In The Words Of Our Enemies.” An editorial titled “Why We Hate You and Why We Fight You” takes aim at Westerners and “apostate ‘Imams’ in the West” who refuse to define ISIS’ motivation as being Islamic. ISIS calls this rhetoric purely political.

If you were still laboring under the illusion that our enemies don’t pay close attention to American elections and politics, you may now safely put that idea to rest. The authors weigh in on a variety of popular discussion points from the campaign trail and are obviously laughing at those who refer to Islam as the “religion of peace.”

“There are exceptions among the disbelievers, no doubt, people who will unabashedly declare that jihad and the laws of the Shari’ah – as well as everything else deemed taboo by the Islam-is-a-peaceful-religion crowd – are in fact completely Islamic, but they tend to be people with far less credibility who are painted as a social fringe, so their voices are dismissed and a large segment of the ignorant masses continues believing the false narrative,” the article says.

This is not some sort of validation of a claim that every single Muslim on the planet is plotting Jihad, but the idea that the tenets underlying the terrorist movement aren’t embedded in their own interpretation of the faith have always been laughable. More interesting here, however, is the open acknowledgment of how our enemies are viewing the debates taking place in the west and the fact that they are, quite simply, laughing at us. Of course they hate us, and their hatred is rooted in a fundamental chasm between their beliefs and ours. Far more alarming is the rather obvious conclusion that even if ISIS is defeated utterly in their attempts to take and hold land to establish their caliphate, the remnants of their army will simply melt into the crowds as preceding groups have done and carry on the battle. This isn’t a conventional war over borders and flags. It’s a clash of cultures and the number of soldiers the enemy can eventually call on is far higher than we’d probably like to imagine.