The 31 thousand ISIS fighters: Jihad and a fatal attraction to evil
sabato 13 settembre 2014 English 0 commenti
Il Giornale, September 13, 2014After the force of destiny compelled Obama, the president of unilateral withdrawals and of the Cairo speech, to declare war to ISIS, it became clear that moving from words to deeds will not be easy. While critics are coming from some disgruntled best friend like the New York Times, the scenario is going to be defined by the new statistics determined by the CIA. According to those figures, ISIS now has about 20.000 to 31.500 fighters on the ground, and not 10.000, as the Agency claimed in a previous estimate. The beheading videos, and the excited statements, in a British or an Italian accent, about the declaration of the Islamic State yielded some results. Jihad is fashionable among young Muslims these days. The number of the new soldiers - they call them “advisers” – will be raised from 1.600 to 2.075, but it still seems inadequate, while the promise to have “no boots on the ground” sounds actually impossible to keep.
In the meanwhile, the coalition is taking shape, and a statement issued after the summit in Jeddah announced the agreement on a “military action” between Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf States (with excellent military bases). The Saudis guarantee the Sunni front. Hollande paid a visit to the new Iraqi president, bringing gifts and promises, showing how Europe always hears the US call. But when the leader’s strategy has flaws, the result could be compromised. And there is no shortage of flaws here: Obama never pronounced the word “Jihad”, and claimed that “ISIS is not Islamic”. He thinks that the inhumanity of this pack of beasts is what makes impossible for them to belong to a religion. This is an untenable hypothesis, although ISIS does not certainly represent the whole of Islam. By denying the evidence, Obama is clipping the ideological wings of the moderate coalition: if the other “is not Islam”, then there is no call to stand up and fight. Moreover, if Jihad is not identified as the driving force of violence, the Shiite jihadist coalition, namely Iran, Hezbollah and above all their friend Assad, will benefit from it. And nothing can be done about it, Assad is gloating, along with Khamenei. Assad’s deputy foreign minister said that Syria has no reservations about the attack. And we do believe it. Then, there is a third problem: ISIS, Jabhat al Nusra, al Qaeda, are based not only in Iraq or Syria, but everywhere in the world. This is a downright infection for the whole globalized Islamic world.
A researcher in Islamic affairs called Brother Rashid, a former Muslim from Morocco who converted to Christianity, simply explains how, in London or in Paris, no Christian or Jew has ever decided to fight with violence, while there are second generation young Muslims fully embracing the most text-centered interpretation of Hadiths or Suras. Everything, from shaving the mustache while keeping the beard to the clothes to wear, from the abduction and the consequent forced marriage of women to the elimination of the non-believer, is a philological choice aiming to bring Muhammad’s times back: the world will return to the Caliphate, to the pure Shariah, to the permanent Jihad, to the suppression or subjugation of the infidels. Young people from all over the world are hearing the call of this great adventure against our universe, which, in their eyes, is persecuting Islam. Even the extreme cruelty and the willingness to die are part of a religious background, certainly not shared by everyone.
It is the most archaic, but also widely popular, interpretation. Thousands of young people in our countries are looking for that great adventure, and feeling persecuted by our culture. They come from Great Britain, France, Italy, and, in a great number, from the Balkans. Mosques, madrasas, cultural and recreational centers, and social networks are the structures where the texts, and the Jihad, are taught. People from India, Malaysia, Singapore, Maldives, the Philippines are swelling the Jihadist ranks. Recruitment centers, often financed with money coming from Islamic states, arrange the passage through Turkey to Syria. Then, at a later time, they will send the terrorists back home. Of course, it is not possible to fly a drone against any European mosque, but this battle is being fought in our countries and worldwide, not only in Iraq and Syria.