Transnational terrorism has haunted us for many years, yet the current crisis with ISIS is quickly becoming one of the most unique cases we have witnessed so far. ISIS is one of the most dangerous and powerful terrorist groups in the globe, but how does it continue to exist and to trap us in fear? The political theorist Hannah Arendt once said, “Fear is an emotion indispensable for survival.” We should be able to use fear for the purpose of survival. In order to do so, we need to dig deeper.
As of now, ISIS has forced the hands of many major international communities to condemn its gruesome deeds. I have come to wonder how this group is able to manage the system of terror effectively. According to recent The New York Times reports, the major source of income for the group comes from oil smuggling. Due to the group’s geographic proximity to the Turkish border, a bridge to Europe, ISIS illegally trades crude oil. It produces crude oil in the Syrian-Turkish border oil refineries from raw petroleum that has been extracted from the controlled regions across Syria and Iraq. This business brings them $1 million per day. However, realizing the problems of money flow helping ISIS’s global jihad, the U.S. and other nations have been recently air striking the oil refineries near the borders. The officials revealed that they were careful with their attacks as they were afraid of harming innocent civilians. Here you can see the drastic difference in tactics used by coalition forces and ISIS forces. The coalition forces seek to prevent unnecessary damage while ISIS is hell-bent on inflicting it across the region and even the world.
The oil smuggling in these regions have been historically common ever since the UN sanction put a limit to Iraq’s oil industry during Saddam Hussein’s regime. Many people in the region have capitalized on this opportunity to smuggle oil as a way to make money and often times that money pays for terrorist organizations. The problem grows everyday as more and more people turn to working for ISIS.
By obtaining incredible amounts of wealth and support from its trade in oil and other resources, ISIS was able to distinguish itself from other transnational terrorist groups by establishing its own country, though not internationally recognized. Until ISIS became the public issue, the image of transnational terrorism was limited to hiding in obscure places and waging secret wars. Instead, ISIS is doing the opposite. It uses social media services to recruit foreigners or many Arab descendents scattered across Europe, who desire a sense of belonging because they could not easily fit in with their current society due to discrimination. ISIS gives the individuals a sense of identification in society through religion and common cultures, which may appear familiar to them over that of European cultures and societies. Fueled by wealth, ISIS buys up incredible amounts of military weapons to compete in national or international levels. Other than using guns to expand their territories, they also use bullets to fill the spots of authority. Based on the PBS Frontline reports, when towns or cities are occupied, the rebels or enemies of the group are publicly and swiftly executed, and people are forced into the endless propaganda tactics to legitimize their ruling. Through these mechanisms, ISIS replaces the vacuum of power with its own governance. ISIS smartly takes up the power and performs its function to rule the people through terror and propaganda.
However mighty ISIS may be, there are many contradictions to its expansive policies. When people are exposed to extreme fear, a number of them choose not to follow it. As long as humans stay humans, however brainwashed they may be, they will naturally hold self-interest and wish to escape from the horrors that terror and war bring. That is the natural instinct, I believe, that people wish to live in their lives free from the terror as much as possible. Also, ISIS’s policies are against many traditional beliefs of Islam, all the while claims to desire a Muslim empire.
While suppressing the influence of science and modern education, condemning them as the evil of the West, ISIS is recruiting guns as well as people who can use those technologies for them. What would happen, when it conquers enough of its goals? Would it still be able to hold the unhappy marriage of modernity and backward belief? Probably not, some bloody mess may be used to cover that dark contradiction. However smart or powerful ISIS may be, the lack of allies is not a wise strategy to pursue. The lack of tolerance and use of violence, is to me, not an enduring national principle. However faulty it may be, we should not forget the transnational terrorism of Islam. It is a task we should all look upon to quit the flame, as the origins of such movements cannot be traced with one click of internet. It is not such a distant danger anymore as seen in the Charlie Hebdo attack in recent times.
Hae Rin is a freshman writer for The Daily Cardinal. Is there anything she may have overlooked? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
