Back2014: A year of disasters
It is time we faced up to the harsh reality and consequences of radical Islam
Premium
February 2014: Fifty nine boys were killed by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.
April 2014: Over 200 girls were kidnapped from a school in Chibok, Nigeria. Soon the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau proudly proclaimed to the world “Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves." He threatened to marry off girls as young as nine.
Two weeks back, there were reports that Boko Haram killed at least 33 people and kidnapped around 200 young men, women and children.
Since April such incidents have recurred with alarming frequency.
June 2014: A caliphate is declared in Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
News of rapes, beheadings, and murders has been flowing steadily from the country. Earlier this month, there were reports that a single ISIS member killed 150 women for refusing to marry other ISIS members. Marriage is euphemism for sex slavery. Some of the women who were slaughtered are said to have been pregnant.
December 2014: 145 people were killed by the Tehreek i Taliban Pakistan at the Army Public School in Peshawar. Of the 145 victims, 132 were school children.
Each of these instances sparked outrage and condemnation in the world. Even as “words failed to express the horror" of what had come to pass, there was an incessant stream of words to sympathize with the victims, chide the governments that failed to protect its citizens, and censure the perpetrators. The first is natural, the second is easy, but it is the third which smacks of denial.
In each of the three cases mentioned above, enquiries into the reason for such violence produce rhetoric and half-baked truths that are convenient for mass consumption.
For example:
Q: Why is the Boko Haram killing people and taking young girls as sex slaves?
A: The people in Nigeria are poor and the Boko Haram is retaliating against the inequality between Christians and Muslims in the country.
Q: Why is ISIS killing people, raping women (mainly Yazidis) and taking them as sex slaves?
A: Because the US invaded Iraq and this has given impetus to radical Sunnis to act against the Shias who were running the country after the US left.
Q: Why did the Pakistan Taliban kill children in an Army school?
A: Because they were seeking revenge for the Army’s operations against them in north Waziristan.
All these answers are stock replies. What we are all shying away from admitting is that all these groups subscribe to the ideology of radical Islam that they believe justifies their actions. So we can feel good about ourselves by asking “which religion prescribes such violence" or by saying “Islam does not preach the killing of innocents", but it amounts to nothing.
Across the world, lives are getting destroyed by radical Islamists, and there is no undoing that damage. What is worrying is that there is no stopping its spread either. Terrorists can be killed, but how do you kill an idea? How do you prevent its propagation? In the last decade, it has only grown stronger and more violent. One of the most common “feel good" solutions provided by apologists is to say that education is the solution. Besides the fact that many of the world’s most dangerous terrorists are very well educated, why exactly is it considered intuitive that education can lure people away from radical Islam? Or is the assumption that all those who are engaged in terrorism today are illiterates who are being misguided? Even if that assumption is accepted (even though it is completely inaccurate), who is supposed to be providing this education that will wash away radicalism? Governments in Iraq, Nigeria and Pakistan? The first two are too ill equipped and dysfunctional to even protect the lives of their citizens, what to say of education. The latter actively sponsors terrorists for use against India and Afghanistan. So who will take the responsibility of educating the ignorant masses?
The truth is that our inability to come to terms with our helplessness against radical Islam has resulted in all sorts of simplistic assumptions and explanations which only help in recycling clichéd opinion pieces in newspapers and websites.
As the year draws to a close, let us at least face up to one reality: there is no solution to radical Islam as long there are people all over the world willing to see romance in it. Ideologies don’t need poverty and illiteracy to make themselves attractive. They thrive with or without them.
Entering 2015, let us also remember we have no tools to fight this evil. And no, hashtags really don’t matter one bit.
Global Roaming runs every Tuesday to take stock of international events and trends from a political and economic perspective.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
