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The questions we need to be asking about Islamic State

http://bit.ly/1Tsz4mm

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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If we treat people as outsiders, they become outsiders

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/if-we-treat-people-as-outsiders-they-become-outsiders-20151004-gk0sel.html

http://bit.ly/1L1yDL0

 

If we treat people as outsiders, they become outsiders

October 4, 2015

Anti-Muslim vitriol plays into the hands of radicalisation recruiters.

When an incident is imbued with a single drop of Islam, it apparently explains everything, and blinds us from asking the right questions.

We are so hasty to roll out the loaded labels, such as “terrorist” and “gunman”, even when referring to a 15-year-old boy. If Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar was a gun-wielding white teenager in school uniform, rather than a brown teenager in a black robe, would we have labelled him a mixed-up kid with mental problems or a radicalised, cold-blooded terrorist?

If a white teenager had opened fire inside a mosque, would we have labelled him an angry misguided youth?

If we are serious in wanting to break this cycle of violence and acts of terror, we need to stop using dehumanising labels and stop absolving ourselves by  shifting blame to Islam.

The complex reality is that many factors line up to trigger such violent acts, including broken families, mental health, perceived lack of alternatives, current circumstances, loneliness, detachment, exposure to violent videos and a twisted moral compass that defines heroism as a violent means towards a rewarding end. These are the push factors that recruiters exploit, especially if the recruit is vulnerable and lacks a good parent.

The pull factors include the lure of adventure, power, belonging, respect, weapons and rewards in paradise. They glorify acts of “warriors” and encourage copycat behaviour.

Too often, the “go to” people for deradicalisation have been community elders, established imams and elected presidents. But the real “experts” on this issue are the youth and their peers, who are more likely to understand and circumvent the cycle.

Youth peers are more likely to derail the radicalisation pathway by planting seeds of doubt and offering other pathways towards redressing injustices. These might include youth groups, political parties, fundraising for charities and letter writing.

Islamophobia might inadvertently feed into the recruitment propaganda, with predators reminding their targets: “We told you that they hate you, you are not welcome, you will never be one of them. Come home to us, come join your brothers and sisters where you will feel welcome, loved and honoured.”

Islamophobia and bombardment with hate messages communicating that Australia does not trust Muslims push “them” to the margins.

Our self-appointed vigilantes should stop giving oxygen to these lethal messages online and on talkback. Stop pushing people over the edge. Stop pushing people to denounce every crime committed by Muslims. Stop pushing people to feel that they are collectively guilty until proven innocent. Stop pushing people towards radicalisation and towards the Islamic State recruitment propaganda. If we treat people as outsiders, they become outsiders.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was keen to point out that venting at Muslims was not the solution to radicalised teenagers, as it could, ironically, be one of the causes.

“We must not vilify or blame the entire Muslim community … our absolutely necessary partners in combating this type of violent extremism.” Indeed, Muslim youth could be our frontline of defence.

This act of leadership was necessary, given the virulent online commentary about deporting Muslims, blocking the 12,000 Syrian refugees, and banning the religion. Any Muslim reading these rants may realise that they reinforce the message of the radicalisation recruiters.

NSW Premier Mike Baird is correct that radicalisation is a global issue and we need to remain open to ideas.

For a start, radicalisation and violent extremism have been treated as a national security issues by federal bureaucracies in Australia. In other countries, radicalisation is treated as a social issue, to be redressed from the ground up, in local neighbourhoods, using peer-to-peer influence as the frontline “weapon”.

At a community-initiated forum on radicalisation last Tuesday, youth, police and community leaders pooled their collective experiences to understand the cycle in order to break the cycle.

We recognise there is no one pathway to radicalisation, and Muslims have no monopoly, given the prevalence of white supremacists.

Hence, there is a need to build resistance and resilience among youth against the predators and recruiters.

The critical incident investigation by NSW Police, Strike Force Fellow, is yet to determine the motivation of the gun-wielding teenager. Just because a person chooses to pray at a mosque, or any place of worship, does not render that place a breeding ground of radicalisation. On the contrary, the Parramatta mosque willingly opened its doors, because it seeks the same solution as the rest of society.

But speculation based solely on religion offers no solutions. And it could perpetuate the problem.

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Harris Park school targeted by anti-Christian threats

By Jade Wittmann

Parramatta Sun,

http://www.parramattasun.com.au/story/2568402/harris-park-school-targeted-by-anti-christian-threats/

 

Calm influence: Joseph Wakim outside the Maronite College of the Holy Family where a staff member was threatened. Picture: Gene Ramirez

Calm influence: Joseph Wakim outside the Maronite College of the Holy Family where a staff member was threatened. Picture: Gene Ramirez

At about 2pm on Tuesday, two men drove past the Maronite College of The Holy Family in a red hatchback with what resembled an IS flag and shouted at a nun form the school they were going to ”get you Christians” and ”slaughter your children”.

She notified the principal who contacted police.

About 1000 students from kindergarten to year 12 attend the school, on Alice Street.

College spokesman Joseph Wakim said parents had received newsletters explaining the incident and he hoped no one would ”use and abuse” social media to give an untrue version of events.

He said he was not surprised that the story had made it to London’s Daily Mail.

”One of the narratives in this post ‘war on terror’ situation is homegrown terrorism,” he said.

”We woke up this morning to the news of arrests in Brisbane and Sydney by the Federal Police of terrorist suspects.

”It’s really easy to conflate the two and think that these people are terrorists who are coming to exact harm on local Christians as they have done in Iraq [but] people are making this parallel that doesn’t actually exist.

‘‘Because we’re living in a volatile time incidents such as this — whether they happen in front of a church or a mosque or a synagogue — are going to attract a lot of attention.

‘‘Sometimes that attention can be counterproductive because people can become paranoid and defensive.

‘‘The really important message that the heads of both the church and the college are giving to people is that their faith teaches them to be people of peace, not people of anger or revenge.

‘‘I know from my close friends within the muslim community, they say exactly the same thing. ‘If you don’t understand your faith come to us, we will guide you’.

‘‘That has been the predominant message to make sure everyone feels safe and they work towards peace.’’

A school liaison officer from Rosehill Local Area Command visited the college this morning to inform and reassure students.

Mr Wakim said the officer’s brief speech was met with applause.

Police also attended mass at Our Lady of Lebanon Church, next to the college, last night as a precautionary measure.

‘‘There was no repeat incident but such verbal threats will always be taken seriously,’’ Mr Wakim said.

‘‘It gave people a great sense of comfort, peace and safety.

‘‘It’s important that whoever is behind this incident understands that they might have thrown a stone to create ripples [but] they’ve failed.

‘‘People aren’t panicking. They’re still sending their children to school, they still go to church to pray.’’

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Al-Qaeda now a US ally in Syria

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/alqaeda-now-a-us-ally-in-syria-20120910-25oby.html
Canberra Times
September 11, 2012

bit.ly/Nktmow

Al-Qaeda now a US ally in Syria

While we reflect on the 11th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks on American soil, there is a blinding light that may obscure our view: this sworn enemy now fights hand in hand with the US against the Syrian regime.

The historic State of the Union address by US president George W. Bush on September 20, 2001 is loaded with morals and principles about good and evil.

The president’s ultimatum was clear: either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

In Syria, there is mounting evidence that Al Qaeda and its allies are actively deploying terror tactics and suicide bombers to overthrow the Assad regime.

Syrian citizens who prefer the secular and stable state to the prospect of an Iraqi-style sectarian state may well be turning this same question around to the US government: are you with us, or with the terrorists?

This week, head of the Salafi jihad and close ally of al Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf, pledged ”deadly attacks” against Syria as ”our fighters are coming to get you” because ”crimes” by the regime ”prompts us to jihad”.

Bush referred to al Qaeda as the enemies of freedom: ”the terrorists’ directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews”. But Sheikh Muhammad al Zughbey proclaimed that ”your jihad against this infidel criminal and his people is a religious duty …
Alawites are more infidel than the Jews and Christians”. Because the new jihad targets Alawites rather than Jews and Christians, does this render them better bed fellows?

By his own admission, Bush stated that al Qaeda was ”linked to many other organisations in different countries … They are recruited from their own nations … where they are trained in the tactics of terror … They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction”.

Yet this is precisely how the foreign jihadists in Syria have been described by reporters. They are funded and armed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And they collaborate with the Free Syrian Army which is aided and abetted by the US.

Bush condemned the Taliban regime because they were ”sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder”. Eleven years later, the parallels produce an uncomfortable truth.

If only the Syrian uprising was as simple as the Arab Spring narrative where citizens seek democracy and freedom. But those unarmed protests have long since been hijacked by a cocktail of agendas which have little to do with Syrian democracy, and more to do with a proxy war to create a sectarian Sunni state that weakens Shi’te Iran’s main partner in the region.

Bush was correct in claiming that al Qaeda ”want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan” – who were all US-Israel allies at that time.

But his list stopped short of mentioning Syria or Iraq, the real targets of al Qaeda. Why does overthrowing Syria, using the same terror tactics, fail to attract the same degree of outrage?

Bush continues: ”We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism.”

This pledge appears to have fallen on its own sword, given the funding of the jihadists in Syria. The terrorists have bred and spread across borders, which is the opposite of Bush’s prophecy.

The US administration must come clean about its financial aid. It cannot use one hand to sign a blank cheque to the rebels, and the other hand to cover its eyes to their immoral and illegal tactics. It cannot hide behind ”the end justifies the means” as there are too many innocent lives at stake.

Bush rode off on his high horse: ”We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them … may God grant us wisdom”.

If the principles and morality are to be taken seriously, then they need to be applied consistently.

The US regime should be actively and publicly distancing itself from the foreign terrorists and Salafist jihadists that are proliferating within sovereign Syria.

It should be condemning al Qaeda for its militant intervention. It should be condemning the Saudi sheikhs who issue fatwas for an Alawite holocaust.

The wisdom that we see is grief over the al Qaeda crime 11 years ago, yet covert collaboration with this sworn enemy today.

Perhaps the US is applying another principle that they may have learned from their pragmatic Arab allies – the enemy of my enemy is my friend.