The Islamic State (ISIS) phenomenon is an imaginary organization which resembles the monsters of fairy tales and Hollywood disaster movies – nobody knows how they were created, yet they grow to an unimaginable size with the capacity to destroy entire civilizations.
Suddenly, in the midst of the Arab Spring’s revolutions against the corrupt and murderous dictatorships governing the region, this savage beast emerges. Just like in a science fiction film, where the beast breaks free of the laboratory of one of the great powers, ISIS has began to destroy these people who rebelled for their present and future. In this film, this superpower was attempting to develop a destructive beast to be used against its enemies, but the creator loses control of the beast, and as a result of this error, this monster obtains a much greater destructive power than its designer envisioned.
It is not easy to believe all that has happened since. After the world moved a year ago to establish a military alliance to fight this deadly monster, ISIS has doubled its controlled areas, doubled the number of its victims, and mastered in the creation of the most heinous and brutal methods of killing during this same year. ISIS’ terror has outpaced the atrocities and crimes committed by Assad's mafia and expanded to other countries in the region – ISIS is present in Sinai, Egypt; ISIS controls Sirte, and continues its expansion into other areas of Libya; ISIS controls Anbar, Ramadi, Mosul and about a quarter of Iraq; ISIS controls Raqqa, Deir-ez-Zor, Palmyra and about 50 percent of Syria.
ISIS is fighting the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic opposition battalions and regime forces and allies. ISIS is fighting the two parties of the Libyan army, it enters a battle with the Iraqi army and the sectarian forces backed by Iran in Iraq, ISIS also clashes with the Egyptian army in Sinai. ISIS expands!
This is the same organization against which 60countries banded together, including the world’s most powerful and wealthiest countries. This alliance has been bombarding ISIS locations for over a year, using the most sophisticated aircrafts, satellites and the latest radar technology.
This medieval organization exploits the injustice and oppression suffered in the Arab and Islamic region, just as Nasrallah and Khamenei do, to send the desperate young men in the region to die – hoping to find in heaven what they have been denied on earth.
But does ISIS really do this alone, or is it nothing more than an evil plant watered and supported by all those who have an interest in the destruction of our countries and peoples – those who want to exhaust and deplete our countries' wealth and stop their development, all those who have an interest in showing the ruthlessness and ugliness of these states' actions as a catastrophic alternative to tyranny and corruption?
In any case, if we consider the sophistication of its weapons, its enormous destructive capacity, and the medieval ideology it adopts, this phenomenon is the most serious threat facing the Arab world and Muslim community throughout history.
Syria and its people, who have always been a cultural challenge to the enemies of the region, are the most targeted and affected by ISIS and its crimes. Therefore, its defeat in Syria would mean its end in the region, and if Syrians wish to succeed in defeating ISIS, they must fight a double battle – a difficult and ruthlessness battle – and all the nations and people of the region should support them, as a Syrian victory would prevent the region from further tragedy and bloodshed. Fighting ISIS requires an end to the injustice, oppression, tyranny and criminality embodied in the Assad regime and its allied Iranian sectarian militias. This dual battle will not be won easy or quickly, but the first step to winning is to restore the collective Syrian awareness, and to strengthen Syrians' desire to live together in a free Syria for all Syrians. Syrians should unite and work hand in hand at the same time against ISIS, Assad, Iran and its militias.
It will not be an easy path, and it will not come cheaply, but Syrians have no other way.
The international community, the people of the Arab region and their leaders who have let down the Syrian people and ignored their sacrifices, should all know that the consequences will not be limited to Syrians alone – havoc may prevail in the entire region.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
