Organizations like ISIS and ISIL have been in existence for quite some time, but very few question their true origins. Today, these two organizations stand for the same ideal and are one and the same thing. The formeracronym stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the latter for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The general perspective is that these Islamic fanatic groupsare financed by Arab States. Qatar is one such State that used to support - but there are individuals who insist that it still doesso. Personally I recall discussing this issue with Arab professors who brought to the forethe double standards that this State uses when it comes to international propaganda. On one hand, Qatar is one of those states that is investinga lot in Europe, including the purchase of leading football clubs. At the same time, it is one of those countries, in the Arab World, which is extremely conservative and Muslim. One only needs to watch Al Jazeera in English and in Arabic. There is a stark difference in their reporting. The English transmission boasts themes that are normally at heart to European and Western listeners. The Arabic one is totally different, extremely conservative and fundamentally Muslim.
Yet, support from the oil-rich Arab States to fundamentalist groups is quite old and has a long history. These cells have been in existence for more than three decades. No one imagined back then the success of these organizations. What is disconcerting is that the authorities in Europe were fully aware of their existence, but either because they wanted to court the rich Arab States or for other reasons which I shall mention further down in this article, they did not do anything to eradicate them. Instead, the policy adopted was one of appeasement, and this only exposed Europe’s weaknesses.
Past European programmes of cultural cooperation, such as MEDA, were in part designed to counteract these cells. They sought to bring together budding students from Western and Eastern countries together to learn about each other’s culture. Culture was devised as a unifying factor. Unity in diversity was the motto in those days.Europe sought to repeat this failed experiment through the creation of other Foundations, such as the Anna Lindh Foundation, but the results were the same. No governing body in Europe and the Arab World is really interested or sincerely believes in a culture of a unifying force in the Mediterranean.
While following an undergraduate course in history at the University of Malta, I was invited to participate in one of MEDA’s programmes. This was in the early nineties. During one of these courses, held in Athens, I met some of these individuals who today I am sure are behind ISIS or one of the fringe groups. At that time, they were young students, some of whom were good computer programmers. They were still in their twenties. Yet, one of them had already a prohibitory injunction from entering some European countries, including France due to his political activities. Instead, he and others were selected by Europe to attend seminars within MEDA in the hope of creating some form of cooperation between the Muslim South of the Mediterranean and the Secular North of this same sea. These courses were aimed at trying to convince members from these extreme groups to move towards the centre. With retrospect, I think that these courses and programmes may have strengthened them in their convictions. because the former only ended up exposing Europe’s bad management where cultural issues of diversity were concerned.
Finally, we should always remember that ISIS was created by the Americans to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. As always, America’s foreign policy was one implemented in her best interest. This explains why ISIS finds iteasy to trade objects of art, which are being plundered in Iraq and elsewhere and sold to the US in return for much needed cash. To reciprocate ISIS buys cars and arms, some of which are also produced in America. Uncle Sam must be extremely happy and certainly has no shame. Countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia exist thanks to Americansupport. America has neverovertly questioned their dictatorial regimes as she did in the case of Gaddafi, Assad of Syria and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Thus present day America is not the best country to give us Europeans lessons in politics. The foreign policy for the Middle East has been a great mess but the media is handsomely manipulated and coversup everythingin the attempt to convince Europeans that thechoices made were/arein our best interest.
However, for once I was relieved and I admired the American President. At least, Obama had the guts to state clearly that the conflict between Israel and the Arabs should come to an end and that it is time for the Palestinians to have their own state. In so doing, Obama defied the strong Jewish Lobby in America. I am sure that such a statement went down well with a strong section of the Jewish population in Israel, for though in a minority, they think on the same lines of Obama. The creation of a Palestinian state is the first concrete step towards the eradication of religious extremism in the Levant.