@Dal - I am sincerely curious what you think the solution is rather than simply what it isn't.
I'm definitely no expert, but here's at least my best attempt at solving such a massive crisis.
Let's ask ourselves a couple questions first-- 1.5 billion Muslims all read the same book. Okay. Why are some of them responding to this religious text with a desire to kill civilians in the west-- including those who live in the west?
The answer is tied to the decades of foreign intervention from the west in the Middle East, which has been essentially the biggest foreign policy blunder at least since Vietnam, maybe the worst ever. There is simply no way to spin the Iraq war as successful in any aspect. The region is thoroughly worse off since Americsn intervention.
Okay, okay. So they hate Americans. Well, so do people all over the world really. What is the source of ISIS's ideology? What is their financial source? Where the **** are they getting all of these weapons and explosives? What on earth?
Well unfortunately, these weapons are coming from Arabic nations who continue to receive weapons and tanks from Western nations (Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia), including from America. I specifically have a lot of disgust with how in-cahoots the US is with Saudi Arabia. It makes no ****ing sense. Not only are they responsible for originating this extremist, Wahhabist Islam that ISIS have taken and run with, it's quite clear that a massive proportion of funding and weapons is coming from this Sunni-state. They have "enacted" laws trying to stop this ease of funding (at behest of the US) but they do not police it with any legitimacy.
So here we have a couple nations, including Saudi, who are very obviously the lifeblood of this militant organization. Why does the US not chastise them? Why does the US attempt to sanction Iran, and reportedly denigrates the country even though it is 100% less reprehensible as a nation than Saudi? Sure, Iran wants to "wipe Israel off the map" while Saudi doesn't-- but it's obvious that Saudi only says that because of their allied relationship with the US. They are the bitch of the US, but unfortunately it's a bit of s 2-way street. The US is highly dependent on preserving relations with Saudi due to their huge stocks of natural resources, thanks to the world's oil economy. The global demand for oil persistently floods Saudi with wealth, and that's what enables them to find organizations like ISIS.
One more question: why are citizens in European countries committing violence against their fellow citizens, despite sometimes being born and raised in Europe?
As a Muslim who lived in Europe for a year in the 4th grade (Germany), I can tell you why. Racism is 100% still prevalent there. Way, way more than Canada. You simply cannot shake off the feeling of just feeling like you are a second class citizen there. This is ESPECIALLY true in a nation like France, which has such high Islamophobia (and even pockets of anti-Semitism). It's a system failure of nations across the European continent that build these Muslim minorities to fail in their countries, which builds their animosity, and enters them into a mindset where they no longer care about the lives of their fellow citizens.
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So, what would I do?
- move towards an oil-free energy economy (through nuclear, wind, etc.) to reduce our dependence on the Middle East.
- coerce Saudi to change their policies towards terrorism on every front. Coerce them to change their policy on refugee accommodation. We now have the upper hand on them, due to our lack of oil dependence.
- assert to the Middle East that it is their responsibility to mobilize and fight against ISIS. Coerce other nations we are allied with into launching an organized offensive against this insurgency.
- kickstart government campaigns across Europe to keep inviting refugees and eliminating the continent of Islamophobia, as well as providing socioeconomic stimulus in the neighbourhoods in which these minority populations reside, in order to help incoming Muslims feeling less disenfranchised from the nations in which they live.
These are a couple, but there's a ton more along the same realm. We need to let the Middle East deal with it, we need to stop ISIS from making us Islamophobic, and we have to do more to accommodate refugees because it is Muslim allies that will end up being our most potent weapon against Islamic extremism. Isis is PRAYING that the world responds to their stacks with Islamophobia-- it is these reactions that perpetuate their existence
This isn't a silver-bullet solution, and it'll take a while before it works. Unfortunately, it's the only one that will work. US Bombing of ISIS territories with boots on the ground will maybe eliminate ISIS (doubtful) but this sets the stage for another militant organization to take control. You have to approach things from the ground up. What factors are leading to this? Let's treat those factors. We don't treat headaches with decapitation.
