How is ISIS tapping into global racism and Islamophobia?
“There’s no question what we’re combating with ISIL’s propaganda machine is something we have not seen before … It’s something we need to do a lot more work on. We are seeing 90,000, I think, tweets a day that we’re combating.”
The Islamic State continues to unleash its brutal campaign of killings, mass shootings and suicide bombings across the world. Thus far, the attacks inspired by the ISIS are belied to have killed more than 1200 people outside Syria and Iraq alone.
The terror outfit’s apparent goal of maximising casualties, chaos and violence remains effective despite the fact that the organisation has lost a large part of its territories in the Middle East. According to some reports, the organisation has lost more than 40 percent of its territory in Iraq and about 20 percent in Syria due to a number of newly adopted measures by the Iraqi and international forces to reduce the physical presence of the group. It includes, ground operations supported by air strikes from various international forces, particularly the US and France and military support for different militia groups such as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Iraq and free Syrian Army in Syria. Moreover, the ISIS is cash strapped and growing weaker on financial front as well: the rising number airstrikes and bombing campaigns have virtually isolated oil fields and supply lines which the group controls, hence limiting its revenues.
However, despite the military gains, the last few months have seen a surge in ISIS attacks around the world. In this month alone, more than 100 people have been killed in attacks coordinated by the group. In Bangladesh, Dhaka, more than 20 people were killed in a hostage crisis linked to ISIS; the group also claimed responsibility for Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, which killed more than 70 people; In an another attack in Kabul, Afghanistan last week, at least 80 people died; and two days ago, a priest’s throat was slit by an ISIS affiliate in France.
Clearly, with the losses on the battlefield, the terrorist network has stepped up its efforts to plot terror attacks outside its territories. Although, in a way, it reflects desperation and urgency on the group’s part to sustain the atrocious and wicked narrative and relevancy it has been able to build though its actions over the last two years, it also reflects the rapidly growing radicalisation globally which the terrorist group has been able to appeal to.
Undoubtedly, the group’s physical presence in Iraq and Syria – or the so called “caliphate” – attract radicalised people who see brutalities inside those swaths of territories as a perfect place to give a free rein to their sins. Those territories appear as a homeland where madness can excel and is legitimate.
The problem, however, is that even if the ISIS were to loss its territories today, it’s symbolic appeal and virtual reach is not going to go away easily. To bring with, the group’s ability to appeal and exploit people’s faith based, particularly the young generation’s radical tendencies, is its most valuable asset. The ISIS’s streamlining of terror through internet and social media is meant to allure the tech savvy young generation globally.
Simply, the group is using a perfect method to “tap” into radicalised communities globally that are ready for harvest and are just “one-click access” away from joining its ranks. “There’s no question what we’re combating with ISIL’s propaganda machine is something we have not seen before,” said the U.S. State Department spokesperson. He further said that “It’s something we need to do a lot more work on. We are seeing 90,000, I think, tweets a day that we’re combating.
The suicide bombing claimed by the ISIS that took place in Afghanistan last week had its roots in the long and bloody political and sectarian feuds that have existed in the country from many decades. The Bastille Day attacker in France was a Tunisian immigrant and belonged to a community who has been the victim of Paris’s failed doctrine of multiculturalism that has only promoted racism and Islamophobia in the country. The rich and liberal backgrounds of Dhaka attackers had their motives in the country’s recent policies that have encouraged extremism and radicalisation in the country.
Similarly, the rise of Donald Trump’s in the United States as a candidate for the White House race also reflects how communities have grown susceptible to violent ideas and racism. The United Kingdom’s Brexit vote is the projection of rapidly growing hatred against diversity and multiculturalism not just towards Muslims but also against similar ethnicities and cultures in the region.
Whether it’s the US’s presidential nominee making promises to guard his country’s frontiers from Muslim’s by battling violence with more violence or it’s a militant group like ISIS, promising a utopian political project for the radicalised, the only thing which can emerge from it is more chaos and anarchy.
In Pakistan, there have been cases where many young and educated people have resorted to violence in the name of ISIS. Their radicalisation took place in the state’s decade’s long policies that had an appeal towards extremist ideas: the ISIS has only given disgruntled youth an identity which promises an ultimate expression of violence, one never seen before.
The world gave ISIS a prefect recipe for violence which the group has been successfully capitalising on. It’s a matter of time before the group loses its territorial presence but the question is can we defeat its global ideological presence that many are eagerly waiting to jump on?
