ISIS-Need to think global and Act local

Sri Lanka as a small Island Nation had experienced crisis after crisis within the last 5 decades. In 1971 it was somewhat adventurist and amateur type insurgency engaging the poor rural Sinhala youth. This was repeated in the late 80’s on a dangerously higher scale to topple the Government by armed rebellion by the JVP (Sri Lanka survived this ordeal).  

The 1983 civil riots paved the way for a prolonged Tamil Insurgency of the LTTE which lasted more than 25 years. The civil war ended in May 2009.  

Sri Lanka enjoyed an excellent spell of peace until the 21st day of April 2019.  

It may be interesting to observe that the event of 21st April 2019 has been caused mainly due to external elements and problems pertaining to ISIS a terror organization from Iraq. The terrible terrorist attack of 21/4 cannot be related to the aspirations or any objectives of the local Muslim Community.  

Ironically the Christian’s and the Muslim Communities co-existed for centuries in Sri Lanka in absolute peace and harmony. The terrible attack of 21/4 in Catholic Churches and hotels causing the death of at least 254, including damages in Churches and properties. The aftermath appears to affect the Muslim Community in Sri Lanka due to the fact the suicide bombers happened to be Sri Lankan Muslims who had joined ISIS in Iraq/Syria.  

What motivated at least a few Sri Lankan Youth to join ISIS a well-known terrorist organization?  

Some explanation can be found in a book titled “ISIS State of Terror by Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger”.

Describing the foreigners in ISIS it says “With the declaration of its caliphate in July 2014, ISIS began to enhance and amplify themes relating to the society it wanted to create. While these ideas had already been present in its propaganda, the declaration of the caliphate had a dimension that went beyond simply showing ISIS in its best light. The new focus reflected a mandate given by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in his first speech as putative caliph:  

“O Muslims everywhere, whoever is capable of performing hijrah (emigration) to the Islamic State, then let him do so, because hijrah to the land of Islam is obligatory,” Baghdadi said. “We make a special call to the scholars, (Islamic legal experts) and callers, especially the judges, as well as people with military, administrative, and service expertise, and medical doctors and engineers of all different specializations and fields.” For these professionals, as well as for fighters, emigration was a religious obligation, he said.  

In July 2014, ISIS’s Al Hayat Media Center released an eleven minute video that drove this point home. Titled “The Chosen Few of Different Lands, “the video showed a Canadian fighter named Andre Poulin, a white convert known to his comrades as Abu Muslim. It was a masterpiece of extremist propaganda.  

The video opened with stunning high-definition stock footage of Canada (or a reasonable facsimile) as Poulin described his life back home.  

“I was like your everyday regular Canadian before Islam,” he said. “I had money, I had family. I had good friends.  

The barbaric nature of ISIS can lead observers to conclude its adherents are simplistic, violent, and stupid. “The chosen Few” displayed a keen self-awareness of this perception and actively argued against it, with Poulin as its telegenic exemplar.   

In the video, Poulin said ISIS needed more than just fighters.  

“We need engineers, we need doctors, we need professionals. He said. We need volunteers, we need fund-raisers.” They needed people who could build houses and work with technology.

“There is a role for everybody.”  

Many of ISIS’s most vocal and visible supporters online are women. Analysis of social networks linked to ISIS on Twitter found hundreds of users identifying themselves as women and actively spreading the organization’s message

ISIS supporters and Social Media tweeted, Photoshop images of a Islamic State Passport, for instance. Their enthusiasm for these tokens of future legitimacy at times reminiscent of a child trying on his father’s shoes pretending to be grown up.  

In November 2014, ISIS announced it would mint its own currency in keeping with the “prophetic method” posting images of the new coins to Twitter.  

Many of ISIS’s most vocal and visible supporters online are women. Analysis of social networks linked to ISIS on Twitter found hundreds of users identifying themselves as women and actively spreading the organization’s message.  

It was a symbol of a society; no distant dream, but a living, breathing institution waiting to be populated by the believers.  

ISIS appears to be in conflict with other Jihadi Salafi Movements. In defiance they were radical amongst the radicals.  

The recent events in Syria and Iraq including announcement by the President Donald Trump that ISIS is no more a threat and not a force to be reckoned perhaps motivated them to look for soft targets like Sri Lanka to build up their images of terror and striking capabilities (It would also help more recruitments).  

However, out of the 2,000,000 Muslim’s in Sri Lanka, the number of Muslims involved or engaged appears to be much less than .01%). Also internally no Muslim should have any reason to support any fanatical Jihadi movements, except when they become victims of vicious propaganda mechanisms such as that of ISIS and joint them or their proxies.   

No political or socio-religious movement can survive unless it is supported by the masses and in the absence of any support from the Muslim community, such terror organizations shall not thrive. In the contemporary global context small groups appear to have capacity to commit acts of mass destruction that were previously possible for powerful nation states. It is only on embarking accurate intelligence and information that would safe guard and prevent senseless terrorist acts.  

Historically Muslim Community has been considered as a Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka. Particularly in the North and in the East the Tamil speaking Muslims had similar issues in the use of Tamil language (including the incapacity to deal in Sinhala language in some parts) together with the Tamil people. Also the Southern Muslim leadership in the early days failed to recognize the Tamil-Muslim inter/sub issues and other main issues (particularly pertaining to Tamil militancy) of the region in the late 70’s. Consequently, young eastern Lawyer M. H. M. Ashroff emerged as a Leader and formed Muslim Congress in the early 80’s.  

During the LTTE led civil war, Prabhakaran declared Muslims as their enemies and in 1990 the entire Northern Province Muslims were suddenly expelled compelling them to leave behind their traditional habitat (not allowed to take their assets) for centuries in Sri Lanka. The Muslims continue to be victims of LTTE together with the Sinhalese people during 30 years of war. Also in the Intelligence Agencies the Muslim Officers contributions had been recognized and appreciated even today.   

In a short period of time, the Muslim Congress was able to become the key partner of Chandrika Bandaranayake’s Government in 1994 and Mr. Ashroff holding a powerful Ministry. Consequent to the said state of affairs further developments occurred as reflected in the media at that time by certain Buddhist clergies focusing on the activities of Minister Ashroff including a media debate with Minister Ashroff (it may be a beginning of hostile perceptions between some elements of the communities).  

Subsequently some of the critics of the major community appeared to be more concerned about some micro aspects of the Muslims such as the dresses, labeling of Halal Foods and inclinations to Middle Eastern Culture etc. Soon after the end of civil war in 2009, the Muslims perceived that Bodu Bala Sena was committed to cause further hostilities towards them. Particularly after the Aluthgama incidents the Muslims perceived that the trust, peace and security they enjoyed with the major community had been shaken.  

Now it is a certainty that at least National Thowheed Jamaath had engaged in extremist activities including the terrorists links to ISIS. However, number of Muslim organizations and the other organizations point the finger at the Government and its intelligence services for not responding for all the specific information provided well ahead of time.  

In this context, the Muslim community irrespective of the co-operation extended to the Government and the armed forces appears to be vulnerable to be targeted by certain extremists groups depending on the developments pertaining to the contemporary situations. It must be mentioned that everybody understands the fact that Muslims as a Community neither seek any territory nor any intention to take over the Government. Considering the current search operations focusing on Muslims, it is clear there are a few violent elements exposed (any community could have some criminal elements amongst them not necessarily belonging to any Terrorist Group)  

So the need of the hour may be to embark on a solid program of vigilance by the Muslims of Sri Lanka to help the elimination of the terror cancer at an early stage with particular reference to intelligence and information with the genuine support of other major communities of the Nation (the negative hate campaigns, etc. could be a recipe to make us a ‘Failed Nation’ very soon.)   

More people in the world today have become more self-absorbed, more tribal and more tenacious in holding on to narrow agendas; we have become consumed by the barrage of information inundating us. We are more fickle when it comes to leaders. Also there is a need for true figures of authority with an elevated perspective, with high attunement to the Nation and a feel for what unifies it. It has never been greater than now to task and establish such necessary lead roles acceptable to the people.