And Its Impact on the United States
And Its Impact on the United States
Introduction
The entire subcontinent of the Middle East would have a very different history and outlook if it were not for very unfortunate events that have taken place in the area over thousands of years. There is plenty of wealth to go around, plenty of trade opportunities with the rest of the world, as well as a great potential for a tourist market. Unfortunately, “the cradle of civilization” is in a constant state of unrest that has precipitated over gigantic wars that have left a lasting impact on the area. In fact, war has become so ingrained in the society of the Middle East, wars can now start there over a single sentence uttered by one of its nation’s leaders. This has led to people in the Middle East being afraid of each other, and the entire rest of global society being afraid of the Middle East. This paper will look at the ongoing conflict of global terrorism, the misperception that this is caused by the world’s largest religion, and what local, national, and global forces can do to help control and slow down terrorism.
Analysis and Critique
Recep Dogan (2015) writes that extremists tend to know exactly how the Western World views them, and they play to this fear very well. When we turn on the nightly news and view acts of terror such as what recently happened in Paris and Brussels, aside from the usual, horrific footage we see of people running for their lives or being carried out on stretchers, we are typically shown footage of an Imam or cleric. As is the case with most Westerners, we have no idea what these clerics are saying, but are led to believe that these reverent leaders of Sunni or Shia Islam are shouting their hatred of the United States or Europe. Then, we are shown a fifteen second clip of a rational Islamic scholar who is speaking English, but is usually being spoken over by the news anchors. How should Westerner’s feel after being shown footage from that light?
The truth is, according to Dogan (2015), this is a very inaccurate picture of the Middle East any time an act of terror occurs, yet it still occurs each time, and each time, the terrorists love it. It feeds into a mutual hatred, and seeks to further divide not only the Western and Middle Eastern worlds, but to divide Americans. In truth, most Middle Easterners, most Muslims, identify with our collective anguish over these acts. The people in the area have experienced terrorism ever since modern civilization began. The Middle East has always been strangled by war between Europe, African, and Asian, which has led to its own brand of violence following.
Almost every time a great civilization has formed and been taken down, the Middle East has paid the price. The Holy Roman Empire, The Ottoman Empire, Saladin’s Empire, Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, the list continues on.
It actually seemed as though there would be a chance at relative peace in the area before the first world war, then England, sensing that unity might not be good for the geopolitically, successfully started to break up Ottoman rule and recreated a Jewish State. The primary call from this author is that we need to start looking at real news sources, rather than ones that have biased narratives. Whether we like it or not, most of us have opinions of the area that are based on misperceptions. The primary misperception being that the word “Jihad” as it is mentioned in the Quran has no pertinent meaning to today’s world. It is similar to a Westerner, regardless of religious subscription, calling for war in the name of King David. Not only is Jihad not an acceptable reason for war, according to many Islamic nations, there is no acceptable reason for war. Any moderate, modern cleric will tell people that.
A.T. Nizami (2014) works primarily on terrorist perceptions in Pakistan. Long a country that has been caught in between the fight against terrorism and that supports terrorism. As Nizami points out, this is a country of immeasurable consequence to the fight on terrorism, yet it is the least understood. Pakistan is caught in a very hard place geopolitically, with the Eastern half being much more perceptive of other cultures, the West, a region of the country that teeters on greatness but falls behind in finances and resources. Then there is Northern Pakistan, a region of the country that until recently, was a perfect little cove for terrorists to hide out.
Nizami directs us to learn about financial instability, not just in the government, but by the majority of people, that allows for terrorism to exist. First, terrorists create the narrative that it is America’s or Europe’s fault for not buying as much oil, or for unfairly sanctioning surrounding countries, therefore we are the reason that they are poor. In turn people get angry, and some even join these extremist groups. As a side note, as an interesting parallel, we seem to be creating the same narrative based on the same misinformation here, except we don’t mention our sanctions, we blame oil output decreases on Muslims blowing up their own oil fiends. What results is two societies that are very afraid of each other, and though the top government officials may publicly decry each society blaming one another, a very different plays out in National politics in both the U.S, and countries like Pakistan, in which extremist individuals seem to do a lot better, even despite the fact a majority of the people disagree with the extremist vision.
Dr. Mohammed Viqaruddin (2010) published an article in a Turkish Journal that does a great job of politicizing terrorism over giving it a religious face. The necessity of this may prove to be very effective in learning how to fight terrorism in the future. As has already been established by the two scholars prior, extremists are just as guilty of hijacking the religion of Islam as they are of hijacking a society’s sense of safety. He points to terrorism throughout history and how governments have played a role up through to today, including the Zealots and Ancient Palestine, The Turks and the spread of the Plague to Europe, the Europeans and the spread of smallpox to Native Americans, and the Anarchist movements of the 1950’s.
He makes arguments against current capitalism and communism, stating how easy it is to launder money via these channels. He states that funneling in money for illegal arms trades is a major priority for all protests. He also cites playing to each society’s fears. For instance, the Ku Klux Klan appealed to many Southern white people who were afraid of black people achieving an equal status in their society. The Narodnaya Volya in 19th Century Russia played to the fears of Czarism and eventually created the socialist movement there.
Terrorists want to get hold of political power, manipulate the media, create the narrative, recruit new members, scare people into submission to their will, release a manifesto while wither releasing prisoners to tell of the group’s atrocities (more recently, with ISIL, this has turned into beheading people publicly, barbarically and without a vivid point), get overreactions by government and its leaders (read Donald Trump), and to overthrow the way of daily life for the targets. This makes the goals of world, national, and local forces clear.
Conclusion
On the worldwide scale, international leaders need to work together to find ways to single out those people or countries that are laundering money to terrorists. This could mean that the U.N. takes on a new role, or forms a new sub-committee, in which countries are audited for major banking transactions, and those are then brought to the attention of the country in question. The United Nations, in general, needs to take more action than ever before. It does not even have the power to actually exert sanctions anymore without the help of the super 8. The super 8 countries of the United Nations are not currently working well together. The UN needs to actively recruit more peacekeeping forces. The program as a whole needs to be reinforced. It is quickly losing any reputation it once had every time they conduct a mission, find things that are not allowed, but cannot do anything about it.
The countries affected by terrorism everywhere, the Western and Middle Eastern parts of the world need to continue to fight against forming a national opinion that is egregious to peace. We need to continue to elect leaders that have peace as their primary mission, while overthrowing leaders who seek hardship and conflict. At the local level, police and local laws need to focus on equity. We cannot pay into the hands of the terrorists by voting for xenophobic and unfair policies. This can aggregate in several ways, and we must not let the minorities who we fight for every day become the victims of terrorism from both ends.
References
Dogan, R. (2015). “Global Terrorism and Islamic Radicalization: Analysis from Fethullah
Gülen’s Perspective.” The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society.
Vol. 6 (1). Retrieved from www.religioninsociety.com, ISSN 2154-8633
Nizami, A.T., et al. (2014) “Terrorism in Pakistan: A Behavioral Sciences Perspective.”
Behavioral Sciences and the Law. 32: 335–346. Retrieved from DOI: 10.1002/bsl.2118
Viqaruddin, M. (2010). “Global Combat against Terrorism and Money Laundering: A Historical
Perspective with Assessment and Strategy.” ALTERNATIVES: Turkish Journal of
International Relations. Vol 9 (3) pp. 73-80. Retrieved from wileyonlinelibrary.com
