What Has Caused A Rise in Islamic Terrorism?

Question

What causes Islamic terrorism?

Answer

Today, many people are afraid of a terrorist, Islamist organization known as ISIS. This fear is based on the fact that they have committed large and deadly acts in the western world. How did we get here, some ask. This is not the first group of this kind. There have been many organizations like ISIS in the past, from Black September to Hezbollah to al Qaeda and all the others in between. There are a few things that connect all of these organizations, two of which are that they are all Islamist and that they were created because of western, more specifically United States, intervention in the political and military affairs in the Middle East. This was started in the late 1940’s with the creation of the State of Israel.[1] But Islamist groups that are present today have a new goal in mind, which is the creation of an Islamic State that will one day encompass the whole world. Al Qaeda was one of the first groups to work with this goal in mind. To achieve this they wanted a foreign force to invade their country, which occurred after the drought about 9/11.When the US had successfully taken over the government of Afghanistan and had forced al Qaeda to flee, it then decided to unnecessarily take Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and also invade it, causing what Osama bin Laden had hoped to achieve in Afghanistan; militants uniting against the foreign force, namely, the US army. In order to detain people who were captured or got caught up in raids, prisons were set up by American forces. These were made into Islamist education and preaching centers where the leaders of ISIS today hatched and spread their ideas. From these facts we see that decisions made by western leaders over actions in the Middle East is the reason why Islamic terrorism has been and still is prominent in the Middle East and in the world as a whole.[2]

Arguably the most significant act of terrorism in the history of the world has been 9/11. This famous act of terrorism was carried out by al Qaeda under the leadership of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, who had been supported by the US when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, carried this plan out in order to bring a foreign military power into his country. This seems a little strange at first. But bin Laden believed that in order to accomplish the idea of an Islamic state, Sunnis would have to unite and stop fighting amongst themselves. His idea was that if a foreign force invaded the country, the people would unite behind the Islamists who were able to actively fight the foreign military force and together, they would be able to defeat that foreign force and create an Islamic state. So when President Bush decided and announced that the US would invade Afghanistan as a part of the War on Terror, they did exactly what al Qaeda was hoping they would do. “When western armies plunged into the Middle East to ‘fight terrorism’ the initial al Qaeda investment, nineteen men, some flying lessons, a few box-cutters, was repaid a thousand fold.” Yet not everything when as expected for bin Laden, for by the end of 2001 Afghanistan had been swept of the Taliban government and al Qaeda leaders. But this was not the end, for the War on Terror would be continued.[3]

In President Bush’s state of the union address in January 2002, he stated, “Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade… States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred… And all nations should know: America will do what is necessary to ensure our Nation’s security.”[4] US leaders therefore followed up and made the decision to forcibly take Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and invade it. The invasion of Iraq was unnecessary because Saddam Hussein had no ties to al Qaeda, but that was not found out for certain till latter. All the leaders, including Osama bin Laden, had been either killed or scattered into hiding when Americans had swept through Afghanistan. By doing this, they furthered the Islamist agendaand eventually did what al Qaeda had hoped for.[5] US troops successfully toppled the government, yet they could not root out the terrorist. Many Americans were killed in Iraq until they were eventually pulled. The result of this invasion of Iraq was the rise of al Qaeda in Iraq, the pretesesor to ISIS.

After taking over Iraq, Prison camps set up by American forces to detain people who were captured in raids. Yet these places of detainment were transformed into education and preaching centers of Islamist terrorist ideas and theology. “Camp Bucca was a terrorist university. Jihadists who spent time there – and there where thousands of them – still refer to it as ‘The Academy.’”[6] A senior officer of ISIS who was interviewed under the name Abu Ahmed, said in an interview, “We could never have gotten together like this in Baghdad. It would have been impossibly dangerous. Here, we were not only safe, but we were only a few hundred meters away from the entire al Qaeda leadership.”[7] The ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi entered Camp Bucca in early 2004. While there he was transformed from a mad Muslim scholar to a terrorist leader. Due to his calmness and peacemaking, he received respect by the soldiers and commanders there. He used this to spread Islamist ideas and thought from the Koran. Without this and other large camps of angry Arabs wanting revenge, ISIS and other groups would not have been able to gain such a large gathering.[8]

All of these factors led to the rise of Islamic terrorism and have put us were we are today. The decision to lead a visible War on Terror by the use of the military was the main cause of this. Had the western response to 9/11 have been a secret and unseen war fought by underground intelligence like the CIA and other organizations, ISIS and other terrorist groups would not have been able to form. Arabs would have continued fighting amongst themselves instead of uniting and creating an Islamic State. The invasion of Iraq was the main cause that has put the world as it is today.

Bibliography

Dyer, Gwynne. Don’t Panic; ISIS, Terror, And Today’s Middle East. Toronto: Random House, 2015

Ganji, Akbar. “Confronting Terrorism and Instability in the Middle East: The Common National Interests of Iran and the United States.” huffingtonpost. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akbar-ganji/confronting-terrorism-and_b_5516243.html.

George W. Bush: “Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union,” January 29, 2002. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29644.

Hall, Benjamin. Inside ISIS; The Rise Of A Terrorist Army. New York: Center Street, 2015.

Keesee, Timothy, and Mark Sidwell. United States History Textbook. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2012

Morell, Michael J. The Great War Of Our Time; The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism. New York: Hachette Book Groupn.d.

[1] Ganji, Akbar. “Confronting Terrorism and Instability in the Middle East: The Common National Interests of Iran and the United States.” huffingtonpost.

[2] Dyer, Gwynne. Don’t Panic; ISIS, Terror, And Today’s Middle East. Toronto: Random House, 2015

[3]ibid

[4] George W. Bush: “Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union,” January 29, 2002. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29644.

[5]Dyer, Gwynne. Don’t Panic; ISIS, Terror, And Today’s Middle East. Toronto: Random House, 2015

[6] Ibid., 112.

[7] Ibid., 113.

[8] Ibid.