Islamic State: Challenges for 2015

Followers of the Quran who are part of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group continue along the route of jihadi terrorism. They are working toward an orthodox Muslim state — with a mistaken view of Islam — in an attempt to re-establish a caliphate, which first came into being through the Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632, and was ultimately abolished on March 3, 1924 by the Turkish Republic. They are awaiting the “battles of the end times,” in Baghdad and Damascus to be specific, in accordance with an ancient prophecy that states that a third of Muslim fighters will flee, a third will die and the remaining third will conquer the world of infidels. This is what their propaganda proclaims through its call to sacrifice and martyrdom — a sure passport to paradise. This explains the irrationality of the recent cases in France. They are hoping to take this war, which is currently occurring in the Middle East, to the entire West. This war has been omnipresent through Islamic conquests and crusades in olden times but also through the establishment of the State of Israel, as well as conflicts between the Sunni and Shiite schools of Islam, the spread of nationalist socialism through expressions of Nasserism, and most of all through oil, which has transformed the region into a geopolitical center of conflict among powers over the last one hundred years.

Independent

In political terms, the Middle East is the result of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the independence of French and British colonized territories, and the U.S. presence. Older, traditional nation-states like Egypt, Morocco and Iran are juxtaposed with new nations with unstable borders that are seeking to define themselves. Such is the case of Tunisia, Libya, Iraq and the new reality of the 40 million-odd Kurds who are seeking an independent and sovereign state. Given the current complex reality of the Middle East, the advance of the Islamic State group army has been astounding up to now, in comparison with Bin Laden and al-Qaida, who hoped to bring about the Islamic revolution from afar in Afghanistan, taking asymmetrical warfare to the heart of the Western world by staging attacks in New York, London and Madrid. The Islamic State group maintains its military bases in the eastern part of Syria and in western Iraq, with clear intentions of advancing toward Turkey.

The West is faced with the dilemma of either distancing itself from conflicts that facilitate the spread of jihad in the Middle East and related expressions of violence in Europe and the United States, or proceeding to the front lines with military presence, together with special territorial measures as decided by the European Union, which has made the fight against terrorism a priority at all forums. The sweeping advance of radical Islam also directly affects Sub-Saharan Africa, with instability in Mali following French intervention in 2013 and the permanent threat of Boko Haram in Nigeria. U.N. and African troops had to intervene in Somalia to the point of being captured by al-Shabab terrorists. For now, the threat posed by fatalism and Islamic fundamentalism remains alive in the Middle East and Africa, despite American and European airstrikes and Turkish, Arabic and Iranian political will.

Challenge

For Europe and the United States, the challenge for 2015 concerns the deployment of special forces to the very battleground of a turf war, together with enhanced security measures. The Arabic, Iranian and Turkish peoples must come to an agreement.

We endorse the statement made by President of Egypt Abdel Fatah el-Sissi on Dec. 28 last year, when the so-called “Vatican of Islam” — the Mosque at the Al-Azhar University, which was founded in 973 — indicated the need to examine Islamic rhetoric, separating politics from religion. He said, “It is inconceivable that the ideology we sanctify should make our entire nation a source of concern, danger, killing and destruction all over the world […] Is it conceivable that 1.6 billion [Muslims] would kill the world’s population of seven billion, so that they could live [on their own]? This is inconceivable […] [We] must oppose [this ideology] with resolve [and] we need to revolutionize our religion.”

There will soon be a summit held in Spain involving the European Union and Arabic countries regarding the need to facilitate greater economic development in the region, according to Spain’s foreign minister. There is no political stability as long as there is poverty and marginalization, since the threat has not only affected Paris, but all of Europe and the entire world, including Arabic and Muslim countries themselves. For now, it is essential to work toward a ceasefire in Syria in order to ease tension in the region and promote negotiations between Israel and Palestine. 2015 is a crucial time for these solutions.