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The questions we need to be asking about Islamic State

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The questions we need to be asking about Islamic State

December 6, 2015

The Sunday Telegraph

AS ISIS peddles conspiracy marketing that they are the masterminds behind the recent spate of all terrorist attacks, another conspiracy of silence abounds in our western alliance.

In western conversations, we shine a light on the heated issue of where will the ISIS “menace” strike next.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reminded “Australians to be aware that a terrorist incident on our soil remains likely”, despite his calm and calculated reassurances.

But we don’t shine a light on the taboo questions that explain how ISIS does not thrive in a vacuum, but is dependent on a supply chain.

We need to reject the simplistic narrative about ISIS as a malevolent cancer that can be surgically amputated.

A bolder set of questions will enlighten us that many of our allies have blood on their hands and are hypocritical for condemning ISIS publicly but aiding them privately.

Let’s shed light on who is funnelling ISIS with funds and weapons. The oil-rich Gulf states of Saudi Arabia and Qatar have supplied ammunition and salaries to the Free Syrian Army in 2012.

They should have known the ancient Arab axiom, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and that ISIS would ultimately confiscate these weapons. Ironically, ISIS propaganda videos have flaunted American weapons which they now point at the manufacturing country.

Let’s shed light on which border is allowing ISIS into Syria. The infiltrations are mostly via Turkey which has allowed ‘jihadists’ and weapons across its border.

We need to shed light on who is funding the Jihadis fighting for Islamic State, Joseph Wakim says.

It has also hosted the launch of ISIS missiles into Kobane in Syria.

Therefore, we need to be asking why Turkey has aided and abetted ISIS supply chain.

Let’s shed light on who is buying the $50 million per month of Syrian crude oil that ISIS have seized. It appears that middlemen smuggle the oil to Turkey, Iran and even the Syrian government.

Let’s shed light on why the US President vows to ‘degrade’ before he destroys ISIS. It suggests that ISIS is serving some purpose in weakening the Syrian army and destabilising the Syrian government.

If they are as evil and threatening as the US rhetoric purports, then surely they need to be urgently obliterated, not gradually disarmed.

This may explain why the Russian jets apparently achieved in one week what the USA failed to achieve in a year of anti-ISIS bombings in Syria.

Let’s shed light on why ISIS have not vowed to rescue their Sunni brothers in Gaza against Israel.

Instead, we see ISIS propaganda threaten the ‘tyrants of Hamas’ with ‘the rule of sharia’. If ISIS genuinely cared about protecting its Muslim brothers from non-believers, Palestinians should be high on the list to be rescued rather than to be threatened.

If they are as evil and threatening as the US rhetoric purports, then surely they need to be urgently obliterated, not gradually disarmed.

Let’s shed light on why the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not actively accommodated the Syrian refugees.

Surely, it would make more sense that the predominantly Sunni Syrians seek citizenship in Saudi Arabia which already shares the Arab proximity, Arabic language, Sunni faith, and recognisable qualifications.

Saudi Arabia is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees and claims to oppose refugee status to these Syrians ‘to ensure their safety and dignity’.

It appears that the Syrian exodus prefers the prospect of distant European citizenship than nearby Saudi foreign labour.

When we shine a light on these darker tunnels that feed ISIS, we replace fear with facts.

 

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Stop oiling the supply chain to ISIS

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As long as the US protects its Saudi oil supplies, the vital supply chain to ISIS and their ilk will continue to be oiled

The Advertiser
18 July 2014

“THE tyrant has fallen and Iraq is free,” trumpeted US President George W. Bush aboard aircraft carrier USS Lincoln on 2 May 2003. “al-Qaeda is wounded, not destroyed.”

On the contrary, al-Qaeda cells in Afghanistan reproduced a new ‘‘base’’ in Iraq. Many of us warned about this before

Operation Iraqi Freedom was unleashed but we were dismissed as prophets of doom.

While meeting with prime minister John Howard on 20 December 2002, we explained the delicate demography of Iraq and cautioned against further fuelling the anger of a nation already crippled by sanctions: another injustice in Iraq will be another magnet for al-Qaeda.

Comparing the new brand of “social media’’ terrorists such as ISIS with al-Qaeda is no longer scaremongering, as this next breed of masked men make al-Qaeda look like their elderly parents. Indeed, al-Qaeda has backed al Nusra Front over the delinquent ISIS in Syria.

Those Western voices who falsely declared the democratisation of Iraq a decade ago should now be given the attention they deserve. None. Yet the US have again dispatched hundreds of ‘‘military advisers’’ to counter ISIS in Iraq but not Syria.

They are the same “Arabists’’ and “experts’’ who failed to forecast the Arab Spring and gave no warning about the recent rise of ISIS.

Those Western voices have lost credibility with their amoral “enemy of my enemy’’ compass: the Salafi jihadists attacking the Assad government are freedom fighters, our friends. But if those same mercenaries step over the border into Iraq to attack al-Malaki’s government, they are now insurgent terrorists, our enemies.

This appears to make no sense as both the Syrian and Iraqi ISIS groups ignore the border in their quest to “reclaim’’ a Salafi caliphate. The English acronym is wrongly translated as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but the last letter actually stands for Shaam, or Levant, an axis that includes Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Palestine.

Hence, their Arabic name is pronounced D-A-E-SH. The car bombings that recently rocked Beirut, attributed to Daesh, confirm that their Shaam extends way beyond Syria into all of the Levant. Their caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi recently declared that the “Islamic State’’ is “breaking the borders’’ and is not confined to Iraq or Syria.

Why would Western voices tolerate the Syrian branch but not the Iraqi branch?

The more credible explanation has nothing to do with Iraq or Syria or justice or democracy.

It has everything to do with the two greatest allies of the US in the region: Saudi Arabia and Israel.

As for Israel, so long as the Arab tribes and sects are depleting each other, this weakens them and relieves the oldest democracy in the region from global scrutiny of Palestinian human rights.

As for Saudi Arabia and adjoining sheikdom Qatar, so long as their pipelines of oil to the US continue uninterrupted, the US will turn a blind eye to their pipelines of weapons and finances to these jihadists.

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki openly accused Saudi Arabia of “supporting these groups financially and morally (for) … crimes that may qualify as genocide.”

Saudi Arabia and Israel, as arch allies of the US, remain untouchable while the US criticises Syria and Iraq for lack of democracy, lack of inclusion and lack of human rights.

Horrific images tweeted by the radical Islamic group ISIS.
The US foreign policy tolerates extremism, Salafism and Zionism when it suits their end game. Hence, it may be in US interests that al-Qaeda is not destroyed in order to manipulate the balance of power.

The aggressive ISIS cells thrive as they cross borders, seize weapons, steal money and cause carnage. But what happens when their use-by date expires and they approach the Israeli borders as part of their Shaam plan?

After the predictable re-election of the Syrian president, and the regaining of territory by the Syrian army, many ISIS jihadists recently crossed the border to fight a more winnable war in Iraq.

If Western voices talk about what “we’’ are going to do and who should replace al Maliki, then “we’’ have learnt nothing. If Western voices label the fighters as Islamists and blame Islam, then we have learnt nothing.

The majority of Muslim scholars preach mercy and forgiveness, not crucifixions and genocide. If the central message of Islam is reclaimed, it could be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Iraqi refugees try to enter a temporary displacement camp but are blocked by Kurdish soldiers in Khazair, Iraq. The families fled Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul after it was overrun by ISIS militants. Picture: Getty

As long as the US protects its Saudi oil supplies, the vital supply chain to ISIS and their ilk will continue to be oiled and the depletions will continue.