Time to crush it

They say, history never repeats itself. Maybe the jehadi group ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Levant ‘(ISIS) has either not read it or they are so excited after their recent spectacular success in North West Iraq and North East Syria, where they have captured large swathes of territory that they feel they can achieve this impossible feat. On June 30 they have renamed themselves as ‘The Islamic State’ and named their head Abu Bakar al Baghdadi as ‘Caliph of The Muslim World.’

This move is bound to bring lot of churning and infighting in the Muslim world globally. ISIS which came into being in 2003 in Iraq as an opposition to the American and British offensive against Saddam Hussain, is basically an off shoot of Iraqi Al Qaeda. Now of course Al Qaeda has disassociated itself from ISIS as it sees ISIS a threat to its leadership of Muslim world. ISIS is composed of Sunni jehadis of Iraq and the former soldiers of the Sunni army of Saddam Hussain. They are more than 30,000 strong. They are well trained and well armed. Despite their ruthlessness they are well disciplined and are media savvy. Their leader Al Bagdadi is an operational man who leads from the front and avoids media glare.

Starting January 2013, ISIS captured Aleppo and Roqca, the two major towns of NE Syria on the river Euphrates. It then continued its march eastwards and as of now has captured Mosul the second largest town of Iraq as also the towns of Tirkit, Fallujah and Ramdi. ISIS is now closing on to Bagdad. American trained and equipped Iraqi army has totally failed against this onslaught and has run away leaving behind large cache of arms and ammunition. With more than two billion dollars looted from the lockers of Mosul Central Bank and other places today ISIS is the richest jehadi organisation in the world.

ISIS has been joined by the former army soldiers of Pakistani army, jehadis of Pakistan sponsored terror organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba and other Sunni jehadis of all kinds from various parts of the world. The first Caliphate came into being after Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632. Caliph is regarded by their followers as successor to the Prophet Muhammad and leader of all Muslims. This is what Osama Bin Laden was wanting for himself. He was influenced by the writings of Egyptian Islamic writer Sayyid Qutub who propagated that to bring about a caliphate at least one state must revive Islamic Rule. That is why he chose to align with the Taliban then ruling Afghanistan. The concept of Caliphate in Muslim world was abolished in 1924 by the Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk after the collapse of Ottoman Empire.

IT impact

Having declared its leader Abu Bakar al Bagdadi as Caliph the ISIS has demanded that all Muslims worldwide must pledge allegiance to their chief. This is where the catch lies. In the 21st century, everyone, including the Muslim world has marched on. Thanks to the information technology the world has now become a global village. Muslims world over are now getting highly educated and are aspiring for better ways of life than what their religion permits when it came into being 1000 years ago. This is very reason why jehadis want to re introduce Caliphate because they feel there is decline in religious observance and the coherence among the Muslims and Caliphate system will be able to stem this tide.

Sooner than later the two oil rich states of Saudi Arabia and Qatar who have till now been supporting the ISIS are bound to realise that they have created a Frankenstein in ISIS and that the supremacy of Sunni Muslim world till now held by Saudi Arabia is under threat. Progressive and comparatively liberal Gulf Muslim states and even Pakistan will be forced to rejig their views on this new type of jehad. As it is, Syria and Palestine are the next declared targets of this new caliphate. Israel will be a highly worried country and America will now be forced to take sides and maybe use its air force to dislodge this new caliphate with ground troops coming from progressive minded Muslim countries.

The biggest confrontation will come from the Shia dominant countries of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon under the leadership of Iran. Already two battalions of Iran’s revolutionary guards have reached Iraq. Iran’s secret service is now effective in Iraq and senior Iranian military officers are directing counter terror campaign of Iraq army. What is really surprising is the silence of the UN and the western powers on this developing confrontation between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda will also challenge this new regime of ISIS.

It is time now that Sunni countries under the leadership of Saudi Arabia stop this new caliphate to take roots. The UN must immediately pass a strong resolution against this and if necessary put troops on the ground against it.