Onward Christian Soldiers
By HUSSAIN ABDUL-HUSSAIN
October 23, 2015
NOW.
At the heart of defeating ISIS is undermining the group’s narrative about injustice that has befallen the world’s Muslims, especially the Sunnis. Before exiting Iraq, the Bush administration went to great lengths to rebalance a Sunni-Shia status quo, an exercise that the Obama administration — naturally biased toward Iran — has miserably failed to maintain.
The outbreak of the Syrian revolution reinforced a Sunni narrative that the world is conspiring in favor of the Shiites, mostly Iran and its proxies: the Iraqi government, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Sunni victimhood is, in and of itself, a rallying cry for ISIS that appeals to young Sunnis worldwide.
And as if American shortsightedness on subcontracting control of Levantine and Iraqi Sunnis to Iran was not enough, the Russians have added insult to injury. Moscow not only takes sides against any country, organization or entity with a Sunni majority, it often lumps all Sunnis into one category of Islamist terrorists. Russia even sent its priests to bless the missiles that its fighter jets rained down on Syrians. If the Russian war on Syria looks like a Christian war against Islam, so be it. Russian President Vladimir Putin loves his image as the world’s toughest bully.
Other Christian and Jewish forces have also expressed similar preferences, though in a more subtle way than Putin. Rightwing Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz attended a gathering in Washington last year to tell the congregating Christians there to ally with Israel against terrorists (read: Middle Eastern Sunnis). He thinks beating ISIS is a priority over toppling Assad.
Even the famous former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, a knowledgeable American figure, wrote that it is in America’s interests to prioritize defeating ISIS over toppling Assad, and that the US should make sure Assad stays to prevent terrorists (also read: Sunnis) from taking his place.
In an article in The Wall Street Journal, Kissinger called for a federal state in Syria divided between the Sunnis and the Alawites. Such an arrangement, according to the 92-year-old former politician, would protect American interests and prevent genocide against Alawites. Whatever happens to Sunnis, who have already suffered massacres, does not seem to bother the Jewish American, himself a refugee displaced by Nazi crimes in Europe.
It is no wonder that ISIS’s first order of the day has been to deepen the divide between Sunnis of Iraq and Syria and other communities. The more Christians ISIS kills, enslaves or displaces, the more enraged the world becomes against — not ISIS, but Sunnis.
The world seems to care about Syria’s Alawites, Christians and ancient ruins, but not about its Sunnis. America’s rightwing Christian politicians make it look as if the world and Putin are all partners in this crusade against the Sunnis, which, thanks to the internet, makes it easy for ISIS to recruit young Sunni men and women around the world.
The outbreak of the Syrian revolution reinforced a Sunni narrative that the world is conspiring in favor of the Shiites, mostly Iran and its proxies: the Iraqi government, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Sunni victimhood is, in and of itself, a rallying cry for ISIS that appeals to young Sunnis worldwide.
And as if American shortsightedness on subcontracting control of Levantine and Iraqi Sunnis to Iran was not enough, the Russians have added insult to injury. Moscow not only takes sides against any country, organization or entity with a Sunni majority, it often lumps all Sunnis into one category of Islamist terrorists. Russia even sent its priests to bless the missiles that its fighter jets rained down on Syrians. If the Russian war on Syria looks like a Christian war against Islam, so be it. Russian President Vladimir Putin loves his image as the world’s toughest bully.
Other Christian and Jewish forces have also expressed similar preferences, though in a more subtle way than Putin. Rightwing Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz attended a gathering in Washington last year to tell the congregating Christians there to ally with Israel against terrorists (read: Middle Eastern Sunnis). He thinks beating ISIS is a priority over toppling Assad.
Even the famous former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, a knowledgeable American figure, wrote that it is in America’s interests to prioritize defeating ISIS over toppling Assad, and that the US should make sure Assad stays to prevent terrorists (also read: Sunnis) from taking his place.
In an article in The Wall Street Journal, Kissinger called for a federal state in Syria divided between the Sunnis and the Alawites. Such an arrangement, according to the 92-year-old former politician, would protect American interests and prevent genocide against Alawites. Whatever happens to Sunnis, who have already suffered massacres, does not seem to bother the Jewish American, himself a refugee displaced by Nazi crimes in Europe.
It is no wonder that ISIS’s first order of the day has been to deepen the divide between Sunnis of Iraq and Syria and other communities. The more Christians ISIS kills, enslaves or displaces, the more enraged the world becomes against — not ISIS, but Sunnis.
The world seems to care about Syria’s Alawites, Christians and ancient ruins, but not about its Sunnis. America’s rightwing Christian politicians make it look as if the world and Putin are all partners in this crusade against the Sunnis, which, thanks to the internet, makes it easy for ISIS to recruit young Sunni men and women around the world.
Justice is the basis of peace, whether civil peace within states or world peace. Putin and Iran have been crying foul against Western injustice — real or imagined — for decades. Likewise, ISIS has been rallying Sunnis who feel that their brethren in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are facing massacres.
Throughout the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Arab states spent decades arguing that a just solution was the key to Middle Eastern problems. Starting 1979, Iran jumped on the Palestinian injustice bandwagon and used it as a rallying cry to build formidable militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Eventually, Washington caught up with the Arab narrative. Since 1987, every US administration —Democrat and Republican — has made the Arab-Israeli peace process the centerpiece of its Middle Eastern policy in the belief that justice makes it hard for agitators who thrive on narratives of victimhood.
Today, 16 months after the beginning of the US-led war on ISIS, Putin, his priests and their crosses, and his minority coalition that is targeting Sunnis have all wiped out whatever progress America made between 2008 and 2010 in the War on Terror.
Restoring justice in the Middle East is key to defeating ISIS. Everything else, from air raids to combating ISIS’s message, comes second. As long as the war against ISIS looks like a crusade against Sunnis, the defeat of the notorious terrorist group will remain elusive.
Throughout the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Arab states spent decades arguing that a just solution was the key to Middle Eastern problems. Starting 1979, Iran jumped on the Palestinian injustice bandwagon and used it as a rallying cry to build formidable militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Eventually, Washington caught up with the Arab narrative. Since 1987, every US administration —Democrat and Republican — has made the Arab-Israeli peace process the centerpiece of its Middle Eastern policy in the belief that justice makes it hard for agitators who thrive on narratives of victimhood.
Today, 16 months after the beginning of the US-led war on ISIS, Putin, his priests and their crosses, and his minority coalition that is targeting Sunnis have all wiped out whatever progress America made between 2008 and 2010 in the War on Terror.
Restoring justice in the Middle East is key to defeating ISIS. Everything else, from air raids to combating ISIS’s message, comes second. As long as the war against ISIS looks like a crusade against Sunnis, the defeat of the notorious terrorist group will remain elusive.
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