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Know ISIS to Defeat ISIS

An Editorial to the New York Times on the Insanity of Fringe Extremism

Omar Alansari-Kreger
The madness of the times is all too surreal. How can people bring themselves to commit
acts of unspeakable atrocity? Wherever there is rage, there is desperation. The victims of
oppression are some of the most marginalized people on the planet. They have no rights and are
treated as a subhuman species by their oppressors. The Middle East has been a powder keg since
the end of the First World War. The colonial powers of Europe designed the geo-political map of
the Middle East for one specific purpose: divide and conquer. All the while, the United States has
done little to reverse such a trend from history.
The legacy of Operation Iraqi Freedom, is a contradiction in terms. On the contrary!
Critics of the campaign should rename it Operation Iraqi Terror, to illustrate the true reality of
its legacy. It condemned the posterity of Iraq to a state of abysmal chaos. After the official
withdrawal of the US military, how much freedom is enjoyed by the average Iraqi citizen? The
United States orchestrated Saddams ouster at the expense of a nations preexisting peace and
security that once existed before the war. History proves that order and stability are also
byproducts of dictatorship. The legacy of the U.S. military occupation has created a vacuum of
opportunistic anarchy where the most arbitrary wielder of power secures tactical field advantages
on the battlefield. With oppression comes hate which has little to no control in the enraged mind.
That is why crimes against humanity are forged in the dehumanizing images of atrocity.
Who is to blame for the rise of the illegitimate Islamic State? Does the emergence of ISIS
signify the failure of democracy in the ethnocentrically and ideologically stratified nations of
Iraq and Syria? The fact of the matter is that no volume of bombs, bullets, and ballistics will
bring about the defeat of ISIS. The headmasters of the illegitimate Islamic State are waging an
ideological war that begins first and foremost in the mind. A victim of oppression living on the
brink of existence has nothing to lose. That is especially true when they have directly suffered
under an array of human atrocities most pronounced through personal tragedies. Irrespective of
ideology, the most dangerous person in the world is one who has nothing to lose. Nothing is no
longer scared which is why any and everything is a potential target.
That describes one mere aspect of the ISIS dynamic. As modern news reports confirm, a
great deal of ISIS recruits originate from Western backgrounds largely derived from
marginalized upbringings. The success of ISIS is attributable to thrill seekers that thrive under
obtuse clouds of ignorance. When the cause in question demands total self-sacrifice through
weighted tokens of death, all restraints are removed. ISIS attracts fringe elements that have given
up on humanity. To the radicalized mind, posterity is treated as an alien concept. This can be
broken down into two different categories which include criminals and social dropouts. The nonreligious turned fringe fanatic is an attestation of desperation made possible through an extreme

epiphany of hate. The belief of all or nothing interprets reality through a vision of penetrating
polarity. Any perspective that is opposed to its own is nothing but an enemy, period.
ISIS was formed in a state of abject obscurity. No one really knows where they came
from and how they plan on attaining their objectives. The practitioners of fringe extremism are as
hypocritical as they are fanatical. They seek world vindication at the expense of an otherwise
dignified humanity. Similar to the actual practice of communism, fringe fanatics transcend into
the same class enemy they openly despise. To overcome the illegitimate Islamic State, it is above
all necessary to address their cause for what it really is; that is best described as an apocalyptic
dystopia with no respect for the human condition. The richness of Islam is found in its great
civilizing tradition detailing a period that lasted from the 6th century to the 20th. That is an
attestation of what Islam is combined together with what it truly stands for. An organization like
ISIS thrives under an aura of anti-intellectualism. When the forces of hate, bigotry, and absolute
retribution overtake the mind, sanity is forgotten and abandoned to the whirlwind of time. ISIS is
a Muslim problem first and foremost.
Once Muslims return to their roots it becomes possible to adopt a comprehensive appreciation of
Islam. That details a much needed awakening that can encourage a great insurrection against
ISIS in all of its known forms. Such forces could encourage the rekindling of Near Eastern
Civilization through a renewed Islamic Renaissance for the Ages. When Muslims root out ISIS
through the power of Islam, a campaign of re-dignification can restore the hope of civilization
to the oppressed and vanquished.