Andrew Kennedy
I
SIS has recently been hitting the headlines across
the globe after the unexpected land grab by the
group, which resulted in swathes of the Middle East
being taken to establish a caliphate, or Islamic
State. The mass kidnapping (and subsequent enslavement) of Yazidi women in northern Iraq as well as the
slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Sunni and Shia
Muslim men, women and children across Iraq and Syria
has highlighted the potential threat to not only countries in the region, but also across the globe, particularly
due to the increasing numbers of foreign fighters, mostly from Muslim minority nations, such as the UK and
Australia, enlisting in the name of Islam to deliver Sharia
Law to the world, ridding their new state of disbelievers
– a message that many Muslims would argue is heretical
against the name of their religion. So the question is, in
the 21st century, how did such a backward organisation
establish itself? What does it mean for the people of
Britain?
be jihadists has never been easier for terrorist conspirators. A recent article published by The Guardian suggests that support for ISIS is in fact stronger in Arabic
social media in Europe than in Syria. Why are so many
people advocating in favour of the group’s central goal:
to enforce Sharia Law and expand their state by any
means necessary, even through the murder of innocent
people? There are multiple reasons for this, I believe.
Firstly, it is the very question which is a factor in contributing to 15,000 people travelling to Iraq and Syria for
this very purpose, but perhaps they do not believe that
Da’esh - IS’ Arabic acronym – spread terror, but in fact
impose what is right – puritanical Sharia Law or even, to
an extent, provide relief for the Syrian people in the face
of a similarly brutish leader, Bashar Al-Assad, whose
regime of terror has caused a worldwide humanitarian
crisis and meant that countless lives have been lost.
Many in Britain, including members of the coalition government, have indicated a policy of promoting ‘British
values’ in schools to counteract extremism, however,
With the growth of social media, recruitment of wouldwhat are said ‘values’? The term is extremely ambiguous, particularly due the
diversity – ethnically, religiously, etc. – that is evident within the country,
therefore, is there any
common ground that is
agreed upon by all which
could be created into a
consistent, water tight national policy? I believe so:
religious and racial tolerance are of course integral
(already defying ISIS’ policy
of killing all non-Sunni Muslims, and even this is up for
debate with the massacre
of many Sunni people, par-
6