Terrorism, France and Beyond

Paris Attacks

The Parisians awoke in 13^th of November in to a terror stricken world. Paris terror attacks have killed more than 130 people and left many injured, some are still in critical condition. The jihadist group ISIS has claimed responsibility. Now it is the 3^rd attack beyond ISIS controlled territory after Russian airliner bombing and Lebanon attacks. After the Second World War, it was the biggest attack in French Soil and most probably the deadliest terrorist attack since 9/11 in any western country except Spain.  The events unfolding in the middle-east and mainland Europe shake us with the deadly realism that we are not safe.

Now the whole world is in mourning, condolence messages and Facebook profile pictures changing it to French Tricolors. They want us to pray for Paris only to Pray for some other city later if we don’t understand the root-cause of the threat of international terrorism and dealt with it once in for all. We can look immediately to the Syrian civil war but it is important to look beyond that particular conflict to understand why, the so called Islamic State Militants have dared to commit suicide killing many unarmed civilians who were not connected to their cause at all.  

Terrorism 101

There were many terrorist groups in the world, most of them fighting to overthrow a government in order to establish their own state with an ideology of their own. Most of the groups belong to the minority of a country; ethnic, religious or political. They were either get wiped off or drawn in to agreements to stop their acts of terror. There is no clear word to define a terrorist because, a person may appear as a terrorist for someone or a freedom fighter to some other.  But for the record, we can identify terrorist as a person who inflict terror through violent method to achieve his goal. He has an ideology on which his acts are governed. They can be religious, ethnic or political such as Marxism. Now most of the international terrorist groups have a religious ideology.

The world is heavily globalized with increasing travel opportunities and communication methods. Thus a terror organization is not limited to one particular country but to the whole world if its followers are scattered globally. Before World War 2 There were rouge nations with sinister ideologies but they have the characteristics of a state and comes with it the responsibilities of a state even at warfare but terror organizations have no such constraints.

As we have previously mentioned, a terrorist organization has

• Operating region
• Ideology
• Specific goal
• An adversary
• Followers
• Support network and
• Sympathizers (sympathizers may turn into followers later)

How it Happen?

Majority of the terrorist organizations born out of the last couple of decades were from the middle-eastern region. Religion plays an utmost part of their ideology. The usual adversary is the western world and governments who are supportive to west. Their goal rages from gaining control of a specific territory to world domination. They have followers, supporters and sympathizers throughout the world. Since their religion is widespread and rapidly growing, they are in no shortage. Not every religious person is a follower of supporter but most of the people have a soft spot in their subconscious mind towards the people of their own religion trying to dispose the enemies of their religion and to propagate it no matter where they live either in a desert in Syria, in a slum in Pakistan or a suburb in England.  

Who to Blame?

It was happened in many Abrahamic religions, sometimes spreading in to the people of different sect of their own religious resulting Spanish inquisition, Catholic-Protestant problems in Europe and Problems among ultra-orthodox Jewish sects. The world has moved away from inquisitions, religious persecutions in Europe and Antisemitism (at least in the western world) but the crusades have never been ended yet.  Blood still spills furiously in the same crusade battlefields where Richard III and Saladin fought. Although battlefield is the same, tactics differ. In a standard warfare, the mightiest military power wins but in a guerrilla war, standard armies and states were pushed in the brink and rouge groups gain the upper hand.

Who Stormed the Hornets’ Nest?

It is not wrong to say that most of the international terrorist groups have born as a result of the interventions from their enemies itself. Colonization in the 17^th-19^th century, aftermath of the WW2 in the middle-east, Israel-Palatine problem, Soviet Intervention, Gulf War, Invasion of Afghanistan, Gulf War 2 and finally the Arab Spring aftermath gives ample evidence of who have driven the first blood. Once incident was linked to another and to another. The list goes on and on with attacks and retaliations only to spill more and more blood on those forsaken lands and beyond.

It is a viable question to ask that even though the so called colonials and socialists have done the exact same thing in Asia, Africa and Latin America, why global terrorism never immerged from those regions. Even if it did, it was in small scare and usually subdued. This is the million dollar question! What is so special with the middle-east? Religion plays a major role and tribalist sentiments dominate people’s ideology. Heavy unequal distribution of wealth, poverty and most important of all, the lack of education to train the mind to be logical are the main causes. It is of utmost importance to note that one cause alone won’t create the situation in middle-east. And blaming religion ONLY won’t solve the problem at all.

What Shall We Do?

There are short-term, medium-term and long-term remedies to battle the wave of international terrorism.

Short-term -  Security has to be tightened. An intelligence services have to run on full alert. Border security and surveillance need to be enhanced. Refugees are one of the biggest threats to Europe and to the rest of the world; unpopular but drastic measures have to be taken even if it is disappointing for the refugees. Balkan states and Eastern-European states have to regulate if not close their borders stopping the influx of refugees to the Western-Europe. ISIS has to be dealt with somehow. Shaking hands with Russia and if possible with Assad, is to be done no matter how unpopular it is. Any enemy is better than ISIS now.

Medium-term – The European dream need to be shattered. Open borders, Multiculturalism and immigration policies need to be changed. Dealing with the middle-eastern governments no matter how unappealing they are, is the way to go. If the west had dealt with Assad differently, ISIS would never have immerged this strong. Assad might get defeated but at least the replacement would never be ISIS.

  

Long-term – Addressing the root cause. Why the west need to be interested in the middle-east so much. One reason is the Israel-Palestine problem. It is a tricky problem. United States and west are always Israel’s allies. Neither Palestinians nor Israelis ready for negotiations. Next one is oil. Oil will run out eventually. Soft diplomacy and international umbrella combined with long term alternative energy plan shall be enough to keep the oil problem at bay. That’s why working with the middle-eastern governments is the key.

Conclusion

What the western world did for decades was make the middle-eastern problem their own. Deal with it politically rather than economically. China was doing the opposite thing and gained profits from it. It is up to the people in the middle-east to decide what they want, either to collapse or thrive as a civilization. West shall take live-and-let-live stance and grab the spoils from it rather than engaging in a regime change for like they did and failed every time.