a database of more than 450 fighters currently in Syria and Iraq.
motivations for travelling to Syria are diverse
tougher laws and blanket punishment shouldn’t be the only approach.
one in nine former fighters subsequently became involved in terrorist activity
In many cases they are disillusioned, psychologically disturbed, or just tired.
ideological, vicious and bloodthirsty fighters who attract the headlines,
many have found the reality to be far different from what they were led to believe.
When he first travelled out there, he said “it was all focused on Assad,” he said. “But now it’s just Muslims fighting Muslims. We didn’t come here for this.”
The blanket approach taken by the government — to threaten all returnees with draconian prison sentences — Abu Mohammed says, makes him feel trapped. “We’re forced to stay and fight, what choice do we have? It’s sad,” he told us.
Following the defeat of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Arab-Afghan fighters could not return to their home countries. They were stripped of their citizenship
regrouped in Sudan and formed a Jihadist Internationale, from which al-Qaeda emerged.
men were offered no opportunity to disengage from the path they had chosen.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries
deradicalisation programmes to convince jihadists to disengage
deradicalisation along with monitoring and surveillance.
would be willing to submit to such a scheme, were it available, in order to return to the UK.
the Channel Project.
More than 1000 people
successfully engaged through this programme.
Treating all foreign fighters as terrorists, however, risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This is not about being soft: it’s about being smart.
In prison, by contrast, they are likely to be further radicalised while potentially exposing others to a hardened ideology and worldview.
another friend who recently quit the fight after he couldn’t accept what he saw out there.
experience — they need to be heard, not locked away.
This was an article (originally published by the Independent, however, I found it on their website via my first article from the BBC) by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence of London. The article suggests, allowing fighters to return home safely and enroll in a De-radicalization program would be more beneficial than current policies of severe punishment (prison, stripping of citizenship, etc.). The authors contend current repercussions for fighters returning to their home countries leave them trapped and isolated and prison sentences often lead to further radicalization. Overall this article really captured my attention in its non-conventional proposal for governments to handle these situations.
The attack took place near Mount Chaambi, a national park on the Algerian border. The attack comes as Tunisian forces on the Libyan border are on high alert in the wake of the murder of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya by another radical Islamic group. They are aware of Egyptians fleeing Libya. Tunisians have been under attack by Islamic militants ever since the overthrow of their dictator in 2011.
Libyans are fleeing towards europe, creating another humanitarian crisis. If the situation in Libya is not addressed, there will be increased radicalization on the southern borders of Europe.
This article focuses on the shift taking place in the brotherhood due to the revolutionary youth present. The comparison to violent jihadi groups are made, which highlight the violence.
"Four jihadi commanders from the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS) were killed in northwestern Iraq as a result of airstrikes by the US-led coalition's warplanes and ground operations by the Iraqi army"
If the conditions
remain unchallenged and, hence, unchanged, it will turn into another Syria
or Iraq.
Nowhere is this
threat more profound than with the rise of radical Islam in Libya
The ongoing low-level insurgency in Benghazi is driven by two factors. The
first is the radical Islamist ideology of certain groups that refuse to
recognise the modern state and its institutions. For example, according to
the leader of AS’s Benghazi branch, Mohammed al-Zahawi, his group will not
disarm and demobilise until its version of sharia is imposed. The
realisation of such an Islamic state constitutes the group’s main aim. In
other words, it is the nature of their Jihad.
The second reason is the Islamists’ history with the state security forces.
During the 1990s, Muammar Gaddafi unleashed a crackdown on all expressions
of Islamism, which saw thousands of youths arrested and jailed as political
prisoners. Many were incarcerated in the notorious Abu-Saleem prison.
Today’s rejection of state institutions has its roots in that brutality.
However, Benghazi is not the only Islamist stronghold in Libya: the city of
Derna, which has historically been a strong recruiting ground for Jihadi
fighters to Afghanistan, Iraq, and more recently Syria, is of serious
concern
Derna’s
Shura Council of Islamic Youth and Ansar al-Sharia have decided to declare
Derna an “Islamic emirate” and publicly announce their allegiance to ISIL
and its leader and so called “Caliphate” of Abu Baker al-Baghdadi. This
means that ISIL now has its terrorist tentacles in Libya.
If the international community continues to overlook the current Libyan
crisis, the country is likely to become an incubator of militant Islamist
groups.
In addition to a military
response, however, we need a holistic and proactive approach that focuses on
achieving reconciliation and stability. This involves forcing all rival
political parties to the negotiation table to agree that a newly elected
parliament is the sole representative body in the country.
This article basically accentuates the driving factors to the ongoing insurgency of ISIL in Libya and how the threat is even more extreme than that of Iraq and Syria. One is the Islamist ideology in itself, rejecting any form of a modern state and the institutions that accompany its success. For example in Libya the leader of the AS branch declares that his militants will not disarm or demobilize until sharia law is imposed. Second, during Gaddafi's rule he unleashed a crackdown on all Islamic expression. The brutality shown towards Islamic groups during this time has fueled their resentment towards sectarian rule and has urged them to push for the rejection of state institutions even more so. The article explains how Islamic groups have claimed power in both Benghazi and Derna, the latter being the historic recruiting ground for Jihad fighters to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. The author makes it clear that both military and diplomatic force from the international community is crucial for the reconciliation of security.
The number of attacks by ISIS has decreased in Iraq since the Russians began bombing the radical group in September of last year. That being said, the number of attacks has increased in Syria due to the lesser amount of pressure that ISIS is receiving in the country.
Libya is in the midst of complete chaos as they currently have no official government. One idea that some say could fix the situation is to restore the monarchy that ruled Libya until it was overthrown by Gadddafi. As of now, there is one distant relative, a grandnephew of the former King who stands waiting to rescue his nation if "the people demand it."
The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. With this new threat in the middle east there must be something or someone to combat it.
The issue with America fighting ISIS is that the United States and the rest of the world do not understand what we are dealing with in the battle against ISIS. This caliphate is more than just a bunch of radicals who want to run the world, it is a group of religious people fighting for what they believe is a pure Islam.
Explains how the Muslim Brotherhood went through somewhat of an identity change post Mubarak due to the oppression they were under when he was in power. Reformations within the group caused changes from radical parochialism to a more political pluralistic approach.
In this heated Counterfire editorial, the history of the two-state solution strife, and the rise of the single-state solution is examined. Looking at a myriad of outside factors from Radical Islam to Netenyahu, this 2014 article strongly calls for a single, multi-faith, democratic solution.
The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is caused by the world's failure to support democracy in the Middle East,
" ISIL now exists because we did not properly support the democratic transition processes in 2012, not becauseISIL is so strong or the Syrian and Iraqi people are aligned to ISIL-like radical acts."
"We welcomed the Arab Spring when it first began to flourish as we thought the EU and the U.S. would support and finance the Middle East just as they did for the wind of democracy in the Balkans,"
Davutoglu said countries like Poland and Romania now enjoy democracy due to finance from the EU but, he added, "no state came up to finance democracy in the Middle East."
Syria faces a terrorist threat instead of democracy is because the world abandonedSyria.
"Islamic communities that have a deep-rooted culture of politics have the capacity, like any other nation and religion, to both keep democracy alive and improve it,” he added. “Neither Islam nor the world of Islam can be correlated with entities like ISIL."
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke at the World Economic Forum about the world's lack of assistance in the transition to democracy in the Middle East and how that ultimately facilitated the birth of ISIL. He explains how a number of EU states were able to maneuver into the democratic realm with the assistance and guidance of the EU, illuminating the idea that the Middle East should be no different. Davutoglu condemns the west for abandoning Middle Eastern states in their dire time of need. While countries around the world supported the Arab Spring, they did nothing to support or finance it to success. He says it would be wrong to correlate the birth of ISIL with Islam, explaining how Islamic communities are perfectly capable of embracing democratic systems. However, assistance in its implementation is vital.
one of China’s main strategic regional projects was the economic region (or belt) of the 21st century Great Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, which intends to create a wide area of Chinese economic presence from China’s western borders to Europe
clearly comprises the countries of Western Asia (i.e., the Middle East)
Chinese leader opened the Sixth Ministerial Meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum on June 5 in Beijing
energy cooperation; infrastructure construction and creation of favorable conditions for trade and investment; and high-tech domains of nuclear energy, the space rocket sector and new energy sources
suggested that the creation of a free trade zone between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) be accelerated
China supports the peace process and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, "enjoying full sovereignty."
, why shouldn’t Russia and China in the current situation — given the proximity of their interests and positions — undertake joint initiatives to unblock the peace process, while initiating steps to "introduce this activity within an institutional framework?
, the unilateral efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to promote the Israeli-Palestinian peace process are not bearing fruit
Russia is interested in using this unprecedented convergence with China in its operations on the Middle East arena, where Moscow has in many ways already been acting in unison with Beijing
, the Middle East Quartet is one of few international platforms where Russia can constructively engage with the United States and the EU
China's growing economic cooperation with Arab countries not a cause for concern in Moscow, but it is also viewed in a very favorable light
will not one day replace the United States as the security guarantor for the transportation routes of these resources
Moscow’s and Beijing’s interests converge in the joint countering of terrorism, extremism and separatism
. Among the militants from radical groups fighting against government troops in Syria, there are people hailing not only from Russia and Central Asia (fewer in numbers to those coming from Arab and Islamic as well as Western countries), but also from the Uighur minority in China.
recently, Beijing came under harsh criticism from Ankara for its actions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region against the Uighur population, which the Turks believe to be their next of kin
. Disappointed by the failure of EU accession, the Turkish leadership has even started talking about the desire to join the SCO as an observer
Ankara expresses its willingness to cooperate with China in the fight against terrorists and condemns the separatism coming from some groups in Xinjiang
There is no doubt that a comprehensive strategic partnership, in which Russia and China would act in concert along the political consensus reached by their two leaders, would in the short term
According to both, this convergence is neither a union nor a tournament of predators, but a very pragmatic integrationist instrument of protection and projection of interests by the two powers, including in the Middle East.
the Middle East was not the focus of the talks between the two leaders
roughly 50 agreements ushering in a period of unprecedented convergence between the two countries
seems to allow the two parties to seek further coordination in their actions
Such consensus includes Syria, despite Beijing’s lesser involvement on this issue, relative to Moscow; Iran, within the P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program; the fight against terrorism and extremism; the creation of a weapons of mass destruction-free Middle East; the condemnation of external intervention and the strategy of "regime change" as well as the push for "color revolutions;" the policy to reach a settlement in the Middle East; and relations with the new Egyptian regime and with respect to the Sudanese issues.
United by a deep hostility toward Islamists, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Russia's Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday they were both committed to fighting the threat of terrorism.
Sisi, who is fighting a raging Islamist insurgency in the Sinai region, said Putin had agreed with him that "the challenge of terrorism that faces Egypt, and which Russia also faces, does not stop at any borders
utin, making his first state visit to Egypt in a decade, said they agreed on "reinforcing our efforts in combating terrorism
The Kremlin chief was the first leader of a major power to visit Egypt since former army chief Sisi became president in 2014
Sisi has repeatedly called for concerted counter-terrorism efforts in the Middle East and the West. Egypt has fought Islamist militancy for decades, mostly through security crackdowns that have weakened, but failed to eliminate, radical group
Putin has also resorted to force against Islamists, sending troops to quell a separatist rebellion in Chechnya, but still confronts insurgents in parts of the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region
Egypt and the Soviet Union were close allies until the 1970s when Cairo moved closer to the United States, which brokered its 1979 peace deal with Israel.
Sisi has since opened up to Moscow, describing Russia on Tuesday as a "strategic friend"
Putin, facing Western isolation and sanctions over his support for pro-Russian separatists in neighboring Ukraine, received a grand welcome in Cair
Putin said he expected a new round of talks on the Syrian conflict, following on from a meeting of some opposition figures and the Damascus government in Moscow last month
The Moscow talks, which ended on Jan. 29, were not seen as yielding a breakthrough as they were shunned by the key political opposition in Syria and did not involve the main insurgent groups fighting on the ground
Moscow has been a long-standing ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Not only is Russia aligning with Syria, but it is also getting closer to Egypt and its government. Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi believes that its relationship with Russia is a "strategic alliance" which is what other middle eastern countries, such as Syria, believe.