The world should prepare for the worst in the fight against ISIS
Salman Aldosary/Asharq Al Awsat/Saturday, 09 Aug, 2015
When it comes to the war on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), we should prepare ourselves for the worst. It takes a long time and effort for ISIS to be defeated in the same way Al-Qaeda was. Although still active, Al-Qaeda is not as powerful as it was a decade ago. Those who believe the war on ISIS will be an easy ride are detached from reality. And those who think that the risks of ISIS will vanish soon are deluding themselves. This is an international war on a cancer spreading across the world. ISIS is a trans-border terrorist organization that uses extremist interpretations of Islam. Moreover, there is much difference between defeating ISIS and eliminating the extremist group, which will not happen within one or two years. In fact, eliminating ISIS will take many years.
The latest terrorist bombing that targeted a mosque belonging to a special emergency force in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Thursday is one link in a long series of terrorist operations carried out by ISIS. ISIS’s terrorist activity is not linked to a certain place as much as it depends on the group’s goals of strengthening the idea of establishing a social incubator to facilitate the movement of its elements from one country to another and attract as many recruits as possible whom it would control from its main bases in Iraq and Syria.
ISIS ideologues are well aware of the fact that the group’s terrorist activity, regardless of its size, cannot on its own secure a foothold on the ground for its members. That is why ISIS tends to stage its operations in different geographical locations, from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and UAE to Europe, as its ultimate goal is to attract “soldiers” for its terrorist “state.”
According to Manuel Valls, the Prime Minister of France, there are 10,000 to 15,000 Islamist extremists in France, with around 475 people—living in France or holding its nationality— fighting with ISIS and Al-Nusra Front in Iraq and Syria. Around 5,000 Europeans are currently fighting with Islamist extremists in Syria and Iraq, with the French spy agency estimating the number will increase to 10,000 by the end of 2015. The growing numbers of European fighters in the ranks of terrorist organizations confirm that the war on ISIS is of an international nature and does not concern a specific region or country. This war will certainly be long and everyone has to deal with it on this basis and always expects the worst.
If the security aspect of the war on terror has been extremely successful, as evidenced by the Saudi counterterrorism strategy, work on the ideological front remains at a standstill. This is not to mention the social efforts that are yet to be made in order to counter ISIS.
Take, for example, how social media networks have allowed extremists space to recruit individuals no matter where they are in the world. On the other hand, internet giants, such as Twitter and Facebook, have not been doing enough to limit the ability of terrorist groups to benefit from the space social media networks offer them to spread their ideology. Of course, blocking those websites would not be the solution. But has Twitter, for example, taken a single legal step to stop extremists from illegally using its platforms? Unfortunately, the answer is “no”.
Twitter should at least require users to provide their phone numbers in order to ensure they take legal responsibility for their behavior. Some even consider such measures to be an infringement of personal freedoms.
ISIS has grown into something closer to an epidemic; it is not different from, say, cholera which has killed dozens of millions of people. ISIS cannot be eliminated in one country while it continues to spread in another. Eliminating the ISIS epidemic requires time, effort, international cooperation and, most importantly, a genuine willingness to fight it.
