Where did ISIS come from?

Submitted by cathy n on 3 June, 2015 - 9:02 Author: Dashty Jamal, Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan

It is true that ISIS is a dangerous force that has started a devastating war in the Middle East in which the results are beheading, raping and ruining the traces of civilisation.

It is true that ISIS wants to drag civilised societies into the same primitive Sharia reign of Islam.

But the worst and most dangerous thing is that it tries to drown the civilised world in blood, terror and killings, as a means to grab the power and wealth of society. ISIS is a black spectre overwhelming human society.

As a bourgeois force carrying the banner of Islam, ISIS has a strategy for the world-wide political arena created by the imperialistic states, the economic depression and American and western strategic failures.

This gory strategy of ISIS is the next phase in the rise of political Islam and its danger.

The Taliban in Afghanistan attempted the same thing with September 11.

ISIS came into being as a result of civil war in Syria; ISIS was created and now it is facing the whole world. Therefore, the root of ISIS is not in Islam; it is in the political situation, the balance of the powers and the economic and social reality of modern capitalist society.

From this perspective, ISIS is a fanatical and fascist bourgeoisie ready to redraw the capitalist world and its regional and local forces.

Behind the rise of ISIS worldwide and in the Middle East are the following things:

1. The failure of US strategy in the Middle East:

The fall of the Soviet bloc opened the way for the USA to reorganise the one-poled world under its ”New World Order”.

Thus the USA became the primary dominant force. It used two Gulf wars against Saddam as a starting point for its strategy in Iraq and the Middle East.

Its aim was to establish a wider Middle East according to its new labour and capital order, something that can be compatible with the foreign policy of the USA and can tie European countries, Russia and China into it.

The main slogan of this strategy was the democratising of all regions.

But this strategy was damaged after the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan, September 11 and the events which followed in which political Islam has grown into a bourgeois current pushing for itself to have a central role in reorganising the world.

The USA has started to use another strategy: strategy of war against terror.

After the war in Afghanistan and the fall of Taliban the policy of the USA changed its course again in the Middle East and paved the way to the war of toppling Ba'ath regime. The USA did not only topple Saddam’s regime, but also ruined the entire society and under the name of democracy divided Iraqi society into fractions, denominations and sects, and created fights between Sunnis and Shiites, Kurds and Arabs and Islamists and secularists.

Thus Iraq has become a swamp for different trends of political Islam.

A fragile state was established in Iraq that couldn’t bring safety and security. On the contrary, it became a factor in terrorism; explosions; carnages; ethnic conflicts; abolishing every service and escalating corruption.

Besides this, Russia and China emerged as other imperialistic countries and became obstacles in front of the strategy of the USA. All in all, this caused the change of balance in favour of political Islam in the area.

2. The change of balance between state powers in east (Turkey and Iran):

The situation of Iraq paved the way to the interference of Turkey and Iran in Iraq. It also gave a chance to those two countries to try to fill the absence of the role of state in Iraq; it was necessary for the security of the Middle East.

Iran directly widened the scope of its hegemony in Iraq by using Hezbollah of Lebanon, Hamas of Palestine, Bashar Al-Asad in Syria and the Shiite groups in Iraq.

When Ardogan came to power in Turkey, he put aside the policy of joining European Union and began competing with Iran. A part of that was to use the Kurdish nationalist parties and support the Sunni groups in Iraq and some forces in Syria.

The Arab nationalism and Sunni states like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the gulf countries stayed beside Turkey just to keep away from the danger of Iran. All this created a material sphere for the emergence of ISIS.

3. The war in Syria is another factor behind the emergence of ISIS.

This war was first meant to suppress revolution. But the USA, NATO and the Western states couldn’t repeat the same scenario of Libya in Syria through military solution because Syria is a pro-Russian area.

So the Syrian society became the victim in resolving the conflict between the imperialist blocs, the USA and its Western allies on one side and Russia and China on the other.
The attempts of the USA to create a moderate force in the Syrian opposition failed. On the other hand, the bombarding of the cities and displacing of millions of people by Asad’s barbaric regime spread the war and its consequences to the whole area including Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. In such a circumstances al-Nusra Front and the other Islamic currents supported by Turkey, some Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia practically helped ISIS in being formed. We have seen that especially after the split of Al-Baghdadi with al-Nusra Front and making Raqa as his main base.

4. The role of Kurdish nationalist parties as another factor to bring about ISIS

The Kurdish nationalist parties, which have made Kurdish citizens submissive and did not meet any basic needs of people, also followed their own interests in this complicated situation. They always tried to widen the areas under their power, retrieve the so-called “conflicted areas” and Kirkuk, gaining more revenues in oil industry and being independent in economy. That is why they have been an inseparable part of the crisis in Iraq. First they stood against Al-Maliki so as to have a good relation with Turkey. Then they supported the Sunni currents and Arab nationalists and the followers of Baath regime to oblige the Iraqi government to give them more interests. During the war in Syria, they closed the borders towards the Syrian displaced people and applied the same policy of Turkey against the Kurdish-speaking people in the Syrian cities.

Even more, while the conflicts between the Kurdish Region and the central government of Iraq escalated, they covertly signed agreements with gulf countries and Saudi Arabia and the Sunni currents. This led to the conquering of Mosul by ISIS, and furthermore, to go forward towards other border areas.

When ISIS came to Iraq, the Kurdish nationalist parties proclaimed that they would not fight ISIS and they just keep defending Kurdistan. However, they began controlling other areas with oil and collecting the arms and ammunitions of the Iraqi army. Then ISIS started to attack the Kurdish cities, but the Kurdish nationalist parties fled the areas justifying that they do not have enough arms to fight ISIS. Their withdrawal caused the displacement of people in Shengal and other places around Mosul. These parties are now in a pseudo-war just to use it as a means to get support from USA and Europe.

They also use it as a tool against Abadi’s government to accept the terms of “Kurds”. Thus they preserved ISIS in the region and hold trade covertly with them.

5. The failure of the post-colonial powers

The shape of these countries, as a result of colonising is also another factor in the current emergence of ISIS.

Theese countries is based are cheap labour force and this needs a despotic state using Islam as a reactionary tool to submit people.

These states have embedded political Islam in the laws and social relations of people.
They encouraged the founding of thousands of mosques and Awqaf (Endowments) Ministries. They encouraged combat against western and civilised cultures.

After advancing in some aspects in the last five decades, the working class and working people started to protest against these regimes in a way that the states are unable to control society.

The case is not only that these states support ISIS and its war and encourage young people to join it, but also that they use it as a means to suppress the social protest against themselves.

6. Islam and political Islam in East and Europe:

Political Islam is itself a product of the policy of Europe and the US in East.

Political Islam is an inseparable part of the power in this region. It is used in every social aspect, in education, law-making, social culture and so on. The unsolved Palestinian problem, economic embargoes and the backwardness of these countries have helped political Islam, as a bourgeois wing, stay as tool of anti-West movements. The US and Western states know this fact but they don’t combat it.

On the contrary, they classified Islam as moderate and extremist and under the name of democracy they supported political Islam and its groups just to fulfil their strategy in the East. Neglecting secularism and equal rights for citizens and dividing the Eastern societies by ethnic and sectarian groups is a part of multiculturalism policy. Nevertheless, they supported Israel against Palestinian people, Saudi Arabia, the kingdom of Jordan, Al-Maliki and Al-Abadi government in Iraq, Libya, Tunisia and the militias in these areas. This has been another factor and even background for ISIS to emerge.

The policy of the US and European states against asylum seekers and refugees is another factor to push young people to join ISIS.

By this I mean: putting refugees in camps, isolating them, imposing community leaders on them, respecting Islamic cultures and values, supporting the Islamic groups for founding mosques, imposing Hijab, religious schools and thousands of Islamic charity organisations, Islamic court in the West and discriminating refugees with “native” citizens… and so on.

All these are in favour of creating a social milieu for ISIS to show.

7. Revolution in the area:

ISIS appeared as an anti-revolutionary force. It is aimed at changing the revolutionary circumstances, after the revolution of Tunisia and Egypt, into a turmoil where revolution is withdrawn.

Fear of a revolt people and a left-oriented state is another factor of appearance and remaining of ISIS. All this said is the political and social frame of the emergence and lasting of ISIS. But the question is: where does this war lead and what is the destiny of ISIS? What is to be done against the threat of ISIS?

None of US, European states, regional states, the democratic and nationalist currents and moderate Islamic currents have interests in cleansing ISIS.

On the contrary, ISIS has been a good card in the hands of these states and forces to gain their own interests. They stand against ISIS just to the extent that they can obtain their goals in the turmoil created in the area. The only force, which can be seriously against ISIS and have interest in cleansing ISIS, is the civilised humanity and freedom-loving front. This force is represented by working class and the toiling mass and freedom-loving youth and women of the Middle East. The outstanding resistance and independent confrontation of men and women of Kobani, while they had very humble equipment, could defeat ISIS.

This proves the fact that humanity and the front of working class and freedom-loving people can be a decisive force to end the spectre of IS and forces alike against humanity.
 
Some points worth fighting for

1. Mass resistance against ISIS, follow the example of Kobani people.

2. Establishing a secular and progressive government to guarantee the influence of the mass of people.

3. Changing the laws, all over the world, in favour of freedom and prosperity for all the humanity (wherever they are)

4. The universal support for freedom, secularism and mass resistance in the Middle East.

5. Immediately help all who have been displaced disregard from their religion or race. Any country which supported ISIS and especially Turkey must not only be condemned; but also  be interrogated.

6. To ask the France and European countries to grant asylum to Yazidis, Christians and every one forced to flee from ISIS.

7. Any activities and demonstrations by ISIS supporters must be opposed by the trade unions, community groups and political organisations. What they do does not constitute freedom of political thought; they advocate hatred and killing.

Tolerating these groups may give justification to other racist groups to flourish and spread hostility towards people from Muslim backgrounds.

8. As a part of maximum combat against ISIS, and its ideology, any financial support to the Islamic organisations and centers who work under the name of Islamic community must be cut. Their activities must be put under control. The religious schools must be shut down and mosques must not be allowed to be used as centres for nurturing terrorists.

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