Describe ISIS Uprising And What This Means To The World (Essay Sample)

ISIS Uprising and What this Means to the World
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ISIS Uprising and What this Means to the World
Introduction
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) consist of violent Sunni jihadist militias who have been flaunted as the most effective and powerful jihad extremist militia group in the world. The group is extremely fanatical and goes around killing Shia Muslims and Christians who hold differing ideology from theirs. In addition, ISIS has grown to be ruthless and has demonstrated military prowess under its tight command by its top leaders. ISIS influence and activities have caused political unrest in several countries and compromised international security to a great extent. The militias are fighting to establish an Islamic State to govern nations where Muslims are the majority. The ISIS mercenaries have been described as a terror group since they have demonstrated similar operation styles to Al Qaeda. It is paramount to note that the ISIS terror threat has started spreading over to other countries in Europe and the United States. The situation in some countries like Iraq is getting out of hand with time as the militants continue to train new soldiers who go ahead in killing innocent civilians, destroying property and taking over new cities and towns. The militant group was considered a serious threat to the global community after brutally killing two United States’ journalists. This paper seeks to investigate the uprising of ISIS, the activities of the group, what this really means to the global community and efforts taken to bring the ISIS threat under control.
Background Information
The ISIS embraces extreme and violent ideologies that exceed the brutality initially associated with Al Qaeda. The group is a collection of militant extremists and attracts followers from all corners of the world. Numerous societal misfits from the West are actively engaged in the group’s activities, which so far has captured and murdered several American journalists. Moreover, several communities and religious gathering in Middle East have been threatened by the group with murder among several other evils. The group has employed the ferocious hudud form of punishments aimed at enforcing the Sharia Laws (Abdul-Hussain & Smith, 2014).
Patrick Cockburn, who is an influential, courageous and a veteran journalist, has covered the wars in Middle East for a long time. According to Cockburn, the emergence of ISIS welcomes another front to the never ending wars which characterizes the misery of those living in Middle East. ISIS militants have superseded the extremism demonstrated by Al Qaeda, which was a vital element and had great influence during the Sunni opposition to American occupation and to a Shia government. Its ideologies are well linked to the Jihad movement and their religious beliefs well connected to Saudi Wahhabism (Ali & Cockburn, 2014). The American engagements in Middle East and the loss and fall of Saddam Hussein, who was believed to have connections to 9/11, prompted the formation of the ISIS extremist group. According to CBS reporter, Ward (2014), the loyalists to Saddam and the Islamic extremists, formed a powerful alliance which demonstrated a mix of organized military discipline resulting to today’s ISIS group.
Currently, the group has demonstrated active ideological enthusiasm and high motivation to extremism and its numbers has continued to swell posing great concerns and worries to the targeted groups. Indeed, the main aim of ISIS is to capture extensive territories, and then build an Islamic State. This is the main cause of commotion as the Islamic State is reconsolidating (Ward, 2014). According to Abdul-Hussain and Smith (2014), the ISIS, at the moment, has the ability to launch serious military campaigns. In early June, 2014, the group stormed police stations and military bases in Mosul, Iraqi and has successfully carried out military class operations since its commanding council consists of former army officials (Abdul-Hussain & Smith, 2014).
United Nations’ Interventions
The current crisis in Middle East has remained to be the most complex and pressing issue top on the United Nations Security Council’s agenda. The issue poses a great threat to regional and global stability and has the recipe necessary to evolve into a global humanitarian crisis. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has held several meetings in a bid to come up with strategies for controlling the ISIS’s activities in Middle East. As reported by Usborne (2014), a meeting chaired by President Barrack Obama passed a resolution to compel member nations to pass laws restricting and suppressing recruitment of foreign nationals into the ISIS group. The leaders reported to be “sickened” by the fact that foreign nationals were responsible for the execution of hostages held captive by the ISIS. The UNSC has constantly called on all nations to partner and confront the ISIS as well as seize passports from members of international community seeking to join the group.
In addition to military action against ISIS so far marked with numerous airstrikes, the UNSC has tasked member states with the duty of taking a concrete action on individuals motivated to join the extremists. By working together, the UNSC members are able to counter violent fanaticism likely to recruit, radicalize and marshal individuals to participate in ISIS’s activities (Usborne, 2014). Various superpowers including the United States have conducted more than 150 airstrikes against the ISIS terrorists. This is a war supported by nearly 40 UNSC members who have made a great contribution in curbing the crisis in Middle East (Fantz, 2014).
The Arab League has been on the lead and has taken various urgent and active measures to combat the ISIS extremism. Resolutions by the Arab league have demonstrated a great sense of urgency calling members to challenge the ISIS Militants. According to Abd El Ghany reporting for CBS (Sept, 2014), the Arab League has devised immediate measures aimed at curtailing the ISIS’s activities at the security, political, legal and defense levels. An effective strategy adopted by Arabs League include imposing of sanctions to the group’s fighters and calling on members to embrace measures necessary to eradicate terrorism.
The Arab League has responded positively to the ISIS threat and devised strategies that aim at disrupting the activities of the militia group. Strategies targeting the recruitment activities, the financial flow and social media campaigns of the militias have been beefed up in attempts to destabilize the group. Arab league members have met to design ways to combat extremism exhibited by the Islamic state and to develop viable ways to protect the vulnerable innocent victims.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has by deed and by word, directly and indirectly, and overtly demonstrated their support by cooperating with the Americans to fight the ISIS. GCC and Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq (also known as GCC+4) has held positions and engaged in activities whose intentions are clear that they are against the ISIS. The GCC+4 have met severally to discuss their roles in campaigns against the ISIS vowing to stand united against terror and other activities associated with the extremists. To a great extent, the GCC+4 members have stood strong to condemn the ISIS thus becoming a pan-regional security agency dedicated towards eradication of extremism within the region.
The GCC+4 has a duty to develop soft power options necessary to break ISIS’s supply of finance and manpower plus counter the group’s communications and other capabilities. This was through strong border controls, confronting the key sources of funds and submitting to law forces anyone who engages in extremism acts (Karasik, 2014). Additionally, GCC+4 has accorded suitable humanitarian support in form of airlifting goods and related relief and funding to reinstate destructed nations as well as rebuilding the lives of victims.
The UNSC, the GCC+4 and the Arab League have not done a lot in attempts to contain the ISIS threat. Military action and airstrikes will do very little to combat the terror group. The best strategy would be containment. This involves ensuring that the group is stopped as it tries t capture more territory. This means that the international mediators need to work hand in hand with the local armies who are already in opposition to the ISIS. The United States should increase economic and military support to countries that share boundaries with ISIS in order to prevent the ISIS expansion to other territories. Therefore, containment will play a major role in restoration of stability to the tortured, tumultuous and the troubled Middle East.
Recommendations
The international community’s exclusive aim is to hobble the ISIS. The strategies so far employed include surgical airstrikes, military interventions and attempts to inject political reforms to control the situation in Middle East. However, these approaches so far have not successfully managed to bring the situation under control. There exist several effective strategies to defeat ISIS.
Isis can be c...