By Adam O’Connell
A recent UN report shows that the Islamic State has killed over 24,000 people in the last eight months, ironically most of their victims were Muslims. Areas that are captured by the group are brutally subjugated. Thousands are executed and their murders uploaded online. Women not belonging to the ‘pure’ Sunni Muslim sect are sold and used as sex slaves. The same UN report claims that IS, is guilty of, ‘mass atrocities.’
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, “The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.”
The group currently controls a territory the size of Britain and has been rapidly increasing its territory by making forays into Syria and Iraq with plans to eventually expand into Europe. The Asian Sunday investigates to give you an in-depth look at the world’s largest terrorist organisation and how it might affect us all.
The Ideology and Goals of IS
With their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, proclaiming the Islamic State as a ‘caliphate’ and himself as ‘Caliph Ibrahim’ he is stating that he is the successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and that all Muslims owe their allegiance to him.
Al-Baghdadi, in a speech on becoming Caliph, said, “Rush O Muslims to your state. It is your state. Syria is not for Syrians and Iraq is not for Iraqis. The land is for the Muslims, all Muslims. This is my advice to you. If you hold to it you will conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills.”
Ultimately, their goal is to establish an empire throughout the Middle East, North Africa, large parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, the Baltic states and Spain. A map, widely available online, show’s that the group expects to have these areas under its control by 2020.
They wish to subjugate these lands under an extreme form of Sharia law. In the areas they already control the teaching of national history, literature, art, music and Darwin’s theory of evolution are banned. Additional things that are not allowed are alcohol, smoking, music in public, photographs/posters outside of shops and naked mannequins. Women are expected to stay in their homes unless they have a good reason to leave and if they do must still wear a full face veil. All non-Sunni Muslims must convert, pay a special tax or be executed.
Atrocities Committed by IS
Numerous pictures and videos can be found online, taken by IS militants, documenting their acts of mass murder. A recent UN report put’s the groups death toll at over 24,000 in the past eight months. The largest single massacre this year was of 1500 Iraqis the group had captured, a video shows the Iraqis lying down on the road before being summary murdered. Whilst it’s the largest massacre it’s not the only one with another 250 Syrians being killed in the same way.
When IS entered an area populated mostly by Yazidi Christians they killed hundreds of men and abducted their women and children.
Khalof Khodede, a Yazidi villager, claims, “(the) Islamic State kidnapped about 400 to 600 people in our village and the majority of those people are women and children. They killed most of the men.”
Recent UN reports have come through that suggest as many as 2,500 women and children have been captured and then given as gifts to IS fighters or sold for $10.
There are also dozens of accounts of group executions, crucifixions and stonings.
Muslims against IS
Despite al-Baghdai’s claims to ‘represent all Muslims’, the IS has been shown to be loathed by nearly everyone in the Islamic faith. Muslim organised demonstrations against IS have been held in numerous countries such as France, Turkey and Germany attracting thousands. The Active Change Foundation, an anti-extremism organisation, launched the hashtag #notinmyname for Muslims to protest against the beheading of British aid worker, Alan Henning, and has since been viewed by over 300 million people.
Hanif Qadir, of ACF, said, “It’s Muslims [and] non-Muslims saying no way, not in the name of Islam, and not in the name of any faith or humanity.”
In addition to this every single sizeable organisation that purports to represent Muslims, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Muslim Council of Great Britain, the Arab League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations have all condemned IS in the strongest possible terms referring to the group, in turns, as ‘barbaric’, ‘evil’ and having, ‘nothing to do with Islam.’
Bana Gora, Chief Executive of the Muslim Women’s Council, says, “These barbarians have hijacked a religion of peace and do not represent Muslims. They are devoid of humanity and should be subjected to the strongest possible action.”
Finances
Before mid-2014 the group was mostly funded through kidnappings for ransom and extorting money from local businesses. It is currently believed that the group only receives 5% of its resources from outside sponsorship.
After the capture of the Iraqi city, Mosul in June 2014 the Islamic State’s assets were valued at $2 billion, making it the wealthiest terrorist organisation in the world. Since then the group has also seized oil fields in Syria which generate between $2 – $3 million dollars a day.
Paul Sullivan, a Middle East specialist at Georgetown University, says, “Isil is developing in a vital oil, gas and trade area of the world. It can grab as it expands.”
Weapons & Fighters
The number of fighters IS may potentially have varies widely depending on the source. The CIA believes that IS has 21,000 – 31,500 whilst the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) put it as high as 80,000 – 100,000. A significant number of IS fighters are neither Iraqi nor Syrian.
Richard Barrett, VP at the Soufan Group, says, “Over 12,000 fighters from at least 81 countries have joined the civil war in Syria, and the numbers continue to grow. Around 2,500 are from Western countries.”
IS fighters have access to not just small arms but a wide assortment of heavy weapons such as rocket launchers and portable surface-to-air missiles. The group has also captured and uses tanks, Humvees and other armoured vehicles.
Collation against IS
Over the past few months a coalition of countries have gathered together to try and stop IS. The coalition so far consists of – America, Great Britain, France, Australia, Belgium, Netherland, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. However with much of the public in the Western world unsupportive of a ground war intervention, so far it has been predominantly through air strikes and humanitarian efforts.
US President Barrack Obama, said, “This is not America’s fight alone. I won’t commit our troops to fighting another ground war in Iraq or in Syria.”
The US has committed the majority of the air strikes, over 240, but there have also been a handful of bombings by Great Britain, France, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Evidence so far suggests it’s had a limited effect, slowing down the IS advance but not curbing it fully. This lack of effectiveness has been blamed on IS sheltering its bases among civilian populations.
The governments of the US, the UK and Saudi Arabia have also agreed to provide additional resources to the Syrian and Iraqi people for training and weapons.
Iran, though not an official member of the US-led coalition, has also been helping the Iraqi government against IS by providing 500 of their elite Qods Force soldiers as well as fighter jets and armed drones.
How will it affect the UK?
Shortly after the first British air strikes hit Iraq last week IS militants made several threats of ‘imminent’ revenge attacks to be launched on UK soil.
An IS militant going by the alias, ‘Abu Musab al-Jazairi,’ wrote on Twitter, “To the people in the UK – because of the actions of your government it will be you who will pay the price, blame them and not us. Everything and everyone will be targeted, it is only a matter of time before it happens inshallah [God willing].”
Only a few days later on October 7th four men were arrested in London under suspicion of being in the early stages of planning a terrorist attack. The men involved are believed to be linked to IS. As such it is possible that British involvement will lead to future terrorist bombings.
There have also been calls from London Mayor, Boris Johnson, that anyone who visits Iraq or Syria, without telling the authorities first, should automatically be deemed a terrorist. Another British politician, David Davis, has also stated he believes that jihadists should no longer be considered British citizens and as such should not have the legal protections of UK law. Currently, both are very popular sentiments and if they were to come into force it would mark for a dramatic change to human rights laws.