Dalai Lama calls on world to give ISIS 'respect'

The Dalai Lama told Italian reporters "there has to be dialogue" with the Islamic State group, which beheads and crucifies its victims

The Dalai Lama says giving the Islamic State group "respect" is the only way to end its bombings, beheadings and terror plots around the world.

The Tibetan spiritual leader told Italian reporters on Monday "there has to be dialogue" with the Sunni radical terror network, which includes a worldwide caliphate as its non-negotiable end game.

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"One has to listen, to understand, to have respect for the other person, regardless. There is no other way. We must do it with your heart," the Dalai Lama said, Agence France-Presse reported Monday. "Be compassionate. Educate. Germany has been very generous to accept refugees, feed them and dress them, but now will have to educate them."

The Dalai Lama also took time to tout Islam as a whole.

"Every man has his own religion and its truth, but in a community there must be so many religions and so many truths. Islam is a religion of peace. Those who are intolerant harm their own faith and their own brothers," the spiritual leader said, AFP reported.

There is one important figure who objects to the "religion of peace" assertion: ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"Islam was never for a day the religion of peace. Islam is the religion of war," al-Baghdadi said in an audio message released May 15, the Independent reported. "Do not think the war that we are waging is the Islamic State’s war alone. Rather, it is the Muslims’ war altogether. It is the war of every Muslim in every place, and the Islamic State is merely the spearhead in this war. It is but the war of the people of faith against the people of disbelief."

ISIS currently controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. It also claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris, France, that killed 130.

The free WND special report “ISIS Rising,” by Middle East expert and former Department of Defense analyst Michael Maloof, will answer your questions about the jihadist army threatening the West.

Tashfeen Malik, the 29-year-old terrorist who helped killed 14 in San Bernardino, California, on Dec. 2 with her husband Syed Rizwan, 28, also pledged allegiance to ISIS.

"Both subjects were radicalized and have been for quite some time," David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, told reporters during a press conference Dec. 7.