Saturday 7 March 2015

Decoding ISIS

US declares ISIS the most powerful terrorist organisation of the world. Why is this group so powerful? What is its origin? What is its mandate? And what are its implications on the rest of the world? These are some of the questions that I would like to answer.

ISIS, Islamic state of Iraq and Syria, as it is known to most, is a Sunni terrorist group aimed to overthrow the rule of the President of Syria (Bashar-al-asad) who is a Shia. In Syria, Sunnis are in majority (70%-72%) and Shias are  in minority but the ruler belong to the Shia group. He has implemented policies in favour of Shias, brutally hampering Sunni's interest. Why Shias and Sunnis have stark differences is based on their notion of selection of the leader (Caliph). Shias believe that the leader should be the one among the family members of the Prophet Muhammad while Sunnis believe that the leader has nothing to do with the heredity and it depends on the capabilities of a person. ISIS want to restore a single Caliphate for the Islamic states.

This group was joined by Iraq who is always against western interference in their territory and Islamic culture, particularly because of Iraq invasion by US-UK based coalition aimed at toppling the Saddam Hussein's regime which they thought was getting powerful as it wanted to take hold of oil fields of Kuwait. Also, US believed that Iraq was responsible for attack on the world trade centre. So US pictured it as - Saddam has Weapons of mass destruction and that it requires UN permission to invade Iraq. The invasion ruined Iraq and no such weapons were found. Saddam Hussein was a Sunni ruler who are in minority in Iraq.

ISIS is expanding exponentially in terms of weaponry, territory and brutality. It aims to take over all the Islamic states.
Talking about the allegation that ISIS might be a tool for US to divide and conquer Middle East , there is no clear evidence to prove this but the manner in which US is handling the ISIS affair is surely doubtful. The aerial bombing by US has no strategy behind. But it seems like it will create more unrest which will make this organisation more powerful and organised as other groups like Alqaeda will come together . US has not completely seized finances into these groups as ISIS has taken over major oilfields and sells oil to various countries, thereby financing themselves for weaponry. Instead of sharing of governance among the different ethnic groups, US is aimed at eradicating ISIS which is a distant possibility.

Each country of the World would be affected by this turmoil directly or indirectly as everyone is dependent on Middle East for oil imports. 

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