Why defeating Isis militarily won't be enough
Recently news broke that the Syrian army had defeated the last stronghold of Isis in the country, with the remaining fighters fleeing into the desert being hunted by government forces. This has been presented as the final nail into the coffin of the Caliphate, but while that may be true, it's not enough to get rid of the group. The simple reason is that Isis as a group is ideologically motivated. The group has been founded on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and ideologies can't be destroyed by force. If we wish to some day completely get rid of this, we have to support reformists within Islam and change the way we look at criticism of religion
Now, I can already see the comments denying that Islam has anything to do with this and people calling me an islamophobe or racist for suggesting this. Admittedly, as a 20-year old man from a western country, who was originally raised Christian and later turned into an atheist, I'm not the best person to talk about this. That's why I'm leaving that to people know more about the topic. The youtuber The Masked Arab is an ex-Muslim who makes videos about Islam in both English and Arabic and he has a full series on whether or not Isis or other similar groups can justify their actions with Islamic sources (spoiler alert: they can). I'll leave a link to his channel at the end of this post, where you can find the playlist on that topic in both languages. There are also people like Maajid Nawaz, a former Islamist and one of the founders of the counter-extremists think tank Quilliam, who are working with Muslim clerics in an effort to reform the faith and counter the messages sent by Islamic groups like Isis. He has also written a book with Sam Harris, one of the most well known atheists, titled "Islam and the Future of Tolerance", where they have a dialogue about the differences between Islam and Islamism, the causes of violence in the name of Islam and whether or not the faith can be reformed. It's a good read and I suggest you check it out. I also suggest you check out the writing of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, another ex-Muslim, who is heavily criticizing the faith. The point is, there are multiple people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, who agree that Islamic sources can be used to justify the actions of groups like Al-Qaeda and Isis and in order to suggest otherwise seems to require incredible levels mental gymnastics. And even if Islam had nothing to do with it, it wouldn't matter as the ideologies motivating these groups still exist.
And before any actual racist of islamophobes try to claim me as their supporter, I'm not only blaming Islam about the existence of these groups. The fact is, there are multiple problems in the Middle East that have caused these groups to attract this much support. The area has seen ethnic and religious conflict through recorded history and modern day, when western countries have been meddling in the affairs of this region has only made the situation worse.This constant state of conflict has led to the region suffering from poverty, lack of resources and low levels of education. This is where groups like Isis come in. These groups offer easy solutions to the problems as they simply blame the foreign infidels who keep sticking their nose into their businesses. And when you combine this rhetoric with the multiple regime changes and invasion in the region by the US and it's allies, you can probably see why the massage of these groups is so popular. They use the actions of western countries as a propaganda tool as these actions seemingly prove their views as the truth. So when western forces kill civilians as "collateral damage", these groups use this as proof that the west hates Muslims. Same thing can be said about the way some European countries, Finland included, have reacted to refugees coming from Muslim majority countries. Lot of European countries have seen a rise of nationalistic parties that have taken a strong stance against immigration and have seen actions taken in order to limit the numbers of refugees coming in. Now, I understand that it's impossible to take everybody in, but some of the actions taken are really not that helpful in solving the problems. This may be another future topic for me, but I'll leave it at that for now.
What should we do then? For one,it would ultimately be better if western countries simply took care of their own problems and leave the Middle East alone, at least militarily. The fact is, that most of these extremist groups can trace their origins to the mujahideen, who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 80s. These were religiously motivated guerrillas that were backed by the US and included in their ranks Osama bin Laden, the former leader of Al-Qaeda and mullah Omar, the founder of Taliban. Sound familiar? Basically, the US supported these guerrillas in their fight against communism, and when this ultimately ended up biting them in the ass, the response from the US ended up creating even worse problems in the region. It's a vicious cycle and the only way to break it is to pull out of the Middle East. Western countries have also been supporting countries that actually support terrorist groups. For example, Saudi-Arabia is considered a major ally in the area, despite the fact that there is good evidence they've been arming Al-Qaeda and maybe even Isis. Some even suspect hey were at least partially funding 9.11. The Saudis actually follow wahhabism, an ultra conservative version of Islam, which is also the same ideology that Isis claims to follow. Yet, despite all the warning signs, western countries keep selling weapons to Saudi-Arabia. Remember, one of the first acts of president Trump was approving an over 100 billion dollar arms deal with the Saudis. In other words, we have to stop giving these groups propaganda tools for recruitment and stop supporting regimes that are making the situation worse.
Now, simply pulling out of the Middle East won't be enough. If we truly wan't to fix the situation in the Middle East, we have to speak address the problems facing the region. This means calling out the barbaric aspects in Islamic writing instead of trying to prevent the discussion. We have to support Muslim reformers who are getting persecuted in countries like Saudi-Arabia. We have to support the ex-Muslims who are facing persecution and possibly even death because of their beliefs. We have call out human rights violations committed by the governments in the area. This also means we have to do the same thing in the west. We need to make sure values like freedom and democracy are taken care of in western countries. These values are what the western world has been build upon and what makes our society so successful. We have to work in order to preserve these values as example for the rest of the world. This means electing politicians who promise to defend human rights and call them out if they fail to do so. This means supporting organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that do this kind of work. Or then do like me: write a blog where you talk about these topics and use social media to spread your message We also have to help poorer countries to solve the problems they have regarding poverty and education, via government run development projects or by supporting charities working in these fields. I understand that this is harder said than done, but I believe we can do it. The fact is that the problems facing humanity are complex and as a result you can't really expect the solutions to be easy either.
Link to the Masked Arab YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9JU55HpvRvCSb1TO2w_eDA/featured
Maajid Nawaz interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlAw7qYLk5w
Now, I can already see the comments denying that Islam has anything to do with this and people calling me an islamophobe or racist for suggesting this. Admittedly, as a 20-year old man from a western country, who was originally raised Christian and later turned into an atheist, I'm not the best person to talk about this. That's why I'm leaving that to people know more about the topic. The youtuber The Masked Arab is an ex-Muslim who makes videos about Islam in both English and Arabic and he has a full series on whether or not Isis or other similar groups can justify their actions with Islamic sources (spoiler alert: they can). I'll leave a link to his channel at the end of this post, where you can find the playlist on that topic in both languages. There are also people like Maajid Nawaz, a former Islamist and one of the founders of the counter-extremists think tank Quilliam, who are working with Muslim clerics in an effort to reform the faith and counter the messages sent by Islamic groups like Isis. He has also written a book with Sam Harris, one of the most well known atheists, titled "Islam and the Future of Tolerance", where they have a dialogue about the differences between Islam and Islamism, the causes of violence in the name of Islam and whether or not the faith can be reformed. It's a good read and I suggest you check it out. I also suggest you check out the writing of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, another ex-Muslim, who is heavily criticizing the faith. The point is, there are multiple people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, who agree that Islamic sources can be used to justify the actions of groups like Al-Qaeda and Isis and in order to suggest otherwise seems to require incredible levels mental gymnastics. And even if Islam had nothing to do with it, it wouldn't matter as the ideologies motivating these groups still exist.
And before any actual racist of islamophobes try to claim me as their supporter, I'm not only blaming Islam about the existence of these groups. The fact is, there are multiple problems in the Middle East that have caused these groups to attract this much support. The area has seen ethnic and religious conflict through recorded history and modern day, when western countries have been meddling in the affairs of this region has only made the situation worse.This constant state of conflict has led to the region suffering from poverty, lack of resources and low levels of education. This is where groups like Isis come in. These groups offer easy solutions to the problems as they simply blame the foreign infidels who keep sticking their nose into their businesses. And when you combine this rhetoric with the multiple regime changes and invasion in the region by the US and it's allies, you can probably see why the massage of these groups is so popular. They use the actions of western countries as a propaganda tool as these actions seemingly prove their views as the truth. So when western forces kill civilians as "collateral damage", these groups use this as proof that the west hates Muslims. Same thing can be said about the way some European countries, Finland included, have reacted to refugees coming from Muslim majority countries. Lot of European countries have seen a rise of nationalistic parties that have taken a strong stance against immigration and have seen actions taken in order to limit the numbers of refugees coming in. Now, I understand that it's impossible to take everybody in, but some of the actions taken are really not that helpful in solving the problems. This may be another future topic for me, but I'll leave it at that for now.
What should we do then? For one,it would ultimately be better if western countries simply took care of their own problems and leave the Middle East alone, at least militarily. The fact is, that most of these extremist groups can trace their origins to the mujahideen, who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 80s. These were religiously motivated guerrillas that were backed by the US and included in their ranks Osama bin Laden, the former leader of Al-Qaeda and mullah Omar, the founder of Taliban. Sound familiar? Basically, the US supported these guerrillas in their fight against communism, and when this ultimately ended up biting them in the ass, the response from the US ended up creating even worse problems in the region. It's a vicious cycle and the only way to break it is to pull out of the Middle East. Western countries have also been supporting countries that actually support terrorist groups. For example, Saudi-Arabia is considered a major ally in the area, despite the fact that there is good evidence they've been arming Al-Qaeda and maybe even Isis. Some even suspect hey were at least partially funding 9.11. The Saudis actually follow wahhabism, an ultra conservative version of Islam, which is also the same ideology that Isis claims to follow. Yet, despite all the warning signs, western countries keep selling weapons to Saudi-Arabia. Remember, one of the first acts of president Trump was approving an over 100 billion dollar arms deal with the Saudis. In other words, we have to stop giving these groups propaganda tools for recruitment and stop supporting regimes that are making the situation worse.
Now, simply pulling out of the Middle East won't be enough. If we truly wan't to fix the situation in the Middle East, we have to speak address the problems facing the region. This means calling out the barbaric aspects in Islamic writing instead of trying to prevent the discussion. We have to support Muslim reformers who are getting persecuted in countries like Saudi-Arabia. We have to support the ex-Muslims who are facing persecution and possibly even death because of their beliefs. We have call out human rights violations committed by the governments in the area. This also means we have to do the same thing in the west. We need to make sure values like freedom and democracy are taken care of in western countries. These values are what the western world has been build upon and what makes our society so successful. We have to work in order to preserve these values as example for the rest of the world. This means electing politicians who promise to defend human rights and call them out if they fail to do so. This means supporting organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that do this kind of work. Or then do like me: write a blog where you talk about these topics and use social media to spread your message We also have to help poorer countries to solve the problems they have regarding poverty and education, via government run development projects or by supporting charities working in these fields. I understand that this is harder said than done, but I believe we can do it. The fact is that the problems facing humanity are complex and as a result you can't really expect the solutions to be easy either.
Link to the Masked Arab YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9JU55HpvRvCSb1TO2w_eDA/featured
Maajid Nawaz interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlAw7qYLk5w
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