To understand how to stop them, we must first figure out who they are In Bosnia, we have been all shocked late on Wednesday (November, 18th) when a riffle armed man, previous drug addict, Enes Omeragic entered lottery shop in Sarajevo suburb and killed two Bosnian army servicemen, and than carried on his carnage on the local bus, before committing suicide in his home. Who was he following, who inspired and recruited this young man? The investigation is not yet complete, but according to local media, he was criminal with a list of lower crimes in his dossier. Some reported that the killer was radicalized by ISIS ideology, and that investigators found ISIS propaganda notes in his house after he blow himself up. As always, the media and public are furiously trying to find answers, but still we do not tackle the core issues and problems. At the very source!
And that source is far from Europe and the West in the lands of Middle East, where we now witnessing Armageddon-style images of wars and exoduses. However, the waves of these crises are reaching the doors of the West, both with refugees and terrorism that took its deadly tribute in Paris last Friday. In Bosnia we felt Paris in our hearts because it's our continent and friendly country, and especially the feeling of sorrow was felt among Bosnia's majority Muslims whose religion is being listed as major cause of this satanic carnage. Then it happened to us, although at much lower scale.
But the questions arise both here in Sarajevo, and in Paris, as well as from Washington to Beirut and Ankara, from all corners of our globalised world: How can we defeat this cancer which inflicted Muslim world and whose pains are felt everywhere now?
Indeed, rare are those who have for a long time warned that this ideology is just lurking for its chance to impose on the Muslim world as the only alternative. It appeals on many accumulated problems and injustices with which, for decades, these nations are struggling, invisible from the rest of the world that is only interested in their natural resources. The ISIS offers its services and solutions to Muslims all over the world to respond with the doctrine of "just terror" against the doctrine of "just war" - what was probably the front-page gruesome message in their latest issue of online magazine.
The list of those who helped the emergence and spread of ISIS is long and largely coincides with the list of countries and centres of power, which is now supposedly fighting against it. Isn't it hypocritical now to wonder how did these violent extremists develop from an almost defeated Iraqi rebel group in the "Jihadist Army" consisting of an international network of volunteers with video recordings of cruel executions that are spreading violence and chaos throughout the Middle East?
It seems that, as two authors Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan suggested in their revealing book "ISIS- Inside the Army of Terror" a new generation of terrorists has dawned and to understand how to stop them, we must first figure out who they are.
In fact, the first step in stopping the ideology of ISIS must rest on the actual familiarization with the ideology and circumstances that produced it, instead of just ending the story by promoting a "conspiracy theory". Or even worse, in false political correctness that should grant amnesty to many of their responsibilities for what is happening today not only in cities where ISIS dominates, but also where they try to establish their emirates and provinces and where they attempt to (auto) recruit new followers in order to achieve their terrorist goals.
For those that view the problems of the Middle East from the outside, they first do not want to see, and later, because of their ideological blindness, they cannot see all of its complexity. This is best seen in the phenomenon of the rise of ISIS.
Those who are now miraculously surprised how ISIS has been created right under their noses, and they did not even notice, should definitely consider a complete new approach to the Middle East. It is the "just peace" that must defeat the proclaimed "just terror". Playing with radical groups and ideologies, although in the short term may bring political or tactical benefit, as we have seen, in the long run it threatens to destroy entire societies and states.
Radical ideologies and those who think they can use them, ultimately turn against their creators and those who tried to manipulate with them. Many used ISIS and its previous incarnations around the world thinking that they are using them, when in fact, those fanatics had effectively used them. The terrorists used their inconsistencies and weaknesses in order to continue their vision of "brutal or holy struggle" for their vision of an "Islamic state".
The last line of defence against terrorism is to defeat the ideology on which it stands not to play according to its rules. Only viable peace in Middle Eastern societies can promise long-term solution to the savagery that ISIS is relying on for its survival. Every other strategy will bring us only more mutant ideologies and who knows which consequences.
From Paris to Sarajevo, from Beirut to Washington, from Baghdad to London - the pains of the terror and deaths that it produces are the same.