Last week, during the 2015 prayer breakfast, President Obama, emphasized that throughout history, groups have often used religion as a pretense to committing atrocious acts.  The president specifically mentioned that slavery and Jim Crow were supported by Christians, (neglecting to mention that these evils were also opposed and ended by Christians).
This comparison is irresponsible in a variety of ways, not the lease of which is that Isis currently controls between 12,000 – 35,000 square miles, that is about the size of Belgium.  Isis operates both civilian and military arms and is actually seeking to govern its’ provences.  Moreover, thousands of jihadists from around the world have flocked to Syria and Iraq in order to join their brothers in arms.   None of that is comparable to the KKK.  A more apt comparison is to the rise of Nazism in 20th century Germany.
It’s this (deliberate?) misreading of Isis that leads our president to declare that Isis is not Islamic, or is the junior varsity squad of Al Qaeda.
The month’s Atlantic magazine has a terrific article on Isis entitled, “What Isis Really Wants.”

Among the gems in this article:

The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

We will never be able to defeat the enemy unless we can first properly identify him.