ISIS Threat: Dance of Barbarians

The fact that Al Qaeda has been bamboozled by the ISIS in the Middle East is no secret. Pressured by US-NATO, Al Qaeda was in the mode of shifting its major base from Pakistan to Africa when opportunity arrived for assisting the rebels in Syria (and in the process the US) plus even helping US directly like destabilizing and destroying Libya.

But as Al Qaeda started establishing in the Middle East, its offshoot the ISIS was trained and armed to counter and gobble up its own mother; Al Qaeda – talk of the snake eating her own eggs. That the ISIS was funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and UAE is well known, as is the fact that British mercenary outfits including former Special Forces officers trained the ISIS.

Had ISIS stopped short of Baghdad and not ventured into the Iraqi Kurds autonomous region, the West would have not interfered. However, as always Frankenstein can hardly be expected to act on predicted lines. If the Al Qaeda in conjunction Taliban were beheading journalists and informers, and shooting Shias in the head after lining them up at point blank range (captured Pakistani military soldiers included), the ISIS has gone a step further; dramatizing beheadings of James Foley, Steven Soltof and showcasing this to the world, along with videos of mass executions of unarmed civilians, headless photos of women and children posted on social media, human blood collection in pans and buckets for whatever purpose, the obvious aim being to instill horror, fear and awe.

More the barbarianism displayed, more the aura and amongst all this macabre dance of death and killings, the distorted and jaundiced teaching of Wahabism  promises Jannat (Heaven), where one would have countless Hoors (beautiful celestial women) perpetually at one’s beck and call.

But then there can be malfunctions in this mythical transportation to Jannat, as was brought home by US General ‘Black Jack’ Pershing fighting as bizarre and barbaric radicals’ decades back in Southern Philippines. The story goes that having got hold of some 50 odd radicals he had them tied to stakes in the woods. Some pigs were then brought, slaughtered and the radicals forced to drink the pig blood – which closed the gates to Jannat as per the radical own teachings. But Black Jack went a step further. 49 of the radicals were chopped to pieces, put in the same pit as the slaughtered pigs and burned off – which to the horror of the 50th fellow sent those burnt directly to hell. Finally this fellow, who had also been forced to drink pig blood, was set free to get the message across to his bretheren. And, the story goes that all was quiet thereafter for a couple of years.

Now with all the good work put in by the ISIS in securing the passport to Jannat and more importantly the Hoors, supposing flame throwers are used against them or President Obama, who now vows to kill the ISIS, starts napalming them, would all the plans for Jannat and Hoors not go to naught?

The recent video broadcast by Ayman al Zawahri appears to have put the ISIS in the background in the Indian media. But let us look at the ISIS threat first. Not only is Saudi Arabia continuing to finance ISIS, it continues to finance Al Qaeda, Taliban, LeT and others because of sympathy for anti Shia militancy, as recently brought out in an article by Patrick Cockburn, former head of MI-6 quoting a cable by Hillary Clinton released by Wikileak.

A recent report from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) reports that more than 300 Indian youth have been recruited by the Pakistan-based Tehreek-e-Taliban(TTP)  which has joined hands with ISIS, the youth are being recruited from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka, and that they are being trained in Pakistan, Iraq and Syria to become Fidayeen. Jamaat-e-Ahrar is the latest breakaway group from the TTP that has proclaimed allegiance to the ISIS but before this the Syrain Ambassador to India had already said many weeks back that some 5000 Pakistan Taliban had been fighting alongside the ISIS in Syria and Iraq past several months.

Earlier, our media had covered news about five youth from Thane area of Maharashtra having joined the the ISIS in Iraq-Syria, one of whom was killed in fighting subsequently. Then there was also news of 25 Muslim youth of Mizoram having been recruited by the ISI of Pakistan besides reports about Maldivian youth joining the ISIS and two of them having been killed as well.

It is logical that when youth from India and Maldives have been joining the ISIS, youth from Bangladesh must be doing so too. In his recent book, Patrick Cockburn points out that the ISIS Caliphate already has area larger than Britain, housing six million people – a population larger than Denmark, Finland and Ireland. But it is typical of the Indian media, whether by design or default, that a particular issue having earned its TRPs is simply is shoved aside and forgotten thereafter. This happened to the news about the ISIS too despite the NIA report suggesting that these youth may carry out massive attacks across the country, overtaken by the video threat of Al Qaeda, opposition lamenting 100 days of GoI gone to naught, gross underdevelopment in Amethi, floods in J&K, Why PM should talk to children on Teachers day, Delhi government formation, so in and so forth.

But what caught one’s fancy was a former diplomat voicing ISIS threat was really not much in the Indian context. His contention was, first, that Indian Muslims don’t really get led astray easily and second, that the ISIS Caliphate is quite remote.

The first logic apparently doesn’t even take into account the lakhs of illegal immigrants that we have had over the years (40 lakh Rohangiyas  alone reported in year 2010), how many of them have been trained in terrorist training camps during the BNP rule in Bangladesh when at least four major anti-India terrorist training camps were being run openly, replete with Al Qaeda and SSG instructors. How many of these would have been sent across with specific missions as sleeper cells.

In the above context, it is relevant to note that as early as 1992-93, Pakistani armed modules were inducted pan India; in the states of J&K, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kota/Ajmer region of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and that SIMI had already started deputing ‘volunteers’ to Pakistan for training along with the mujahedeen, Taliban and Al Qaeda cadres, as penned by MK Dhar, former Joint Director IB in his book ‘Open Secrets – India’s intelligence unveiled’ published in 2005. He went on to say that these youth deputed by SIMI “established firm linkages with Islamic Chhatra Shibir, Al Qaeda affiliated HUJI, Al Badr, Al Jihad and other organizations in Bangladesh and were trained in facilities located inside Bangladesh and under the very noses of DGFI and BDR”.  So those who think that Indian Muslims will not get lured by ISIS are only fooling themselves.

The process of radicalization has been orchestrated over decades in consistent fashion. Look around and see how Wahabi thoughts are destroying the Sufi culture of J&K. We need to review how many clerics and scholars from Saudi Arabia visited India in past years, who they meet and whether their mission included propagating that anyone other than Wahabi is anathema and a burden to the earth. India reportedly has some 300,000 mosques (much more than any country in the entire world) but are they and the madrassas leaning towards this radical thought process? To top this all we have the largest youth bulge in the world, 4.68 crores unemployed (majority youth), 40 lakh illegal weapons in circulation and 17 tons of heroin alone being consumed annually.  So why would the youth not fall prey if convinced about the JH Concept – Jannat and Hoors?