By Amit Srivastava
Since the world population crossed 7 billion, there has been a sharp rise in incidents of international conflicts. Not due to a resource crunch but due to diplomatic failures and lack of communication among differing ideologies and states. At present, world peace is being shaken by state and non-state actors right from Syria to Ukraine and from Afghanistan to Myanmar. Needless to say, the United Nations (UN), as a body, has failed to address and resolve any of the ongoing conflicts in different parts of the world. It seems as though the UN has become a high profile international NGO, which is limited to economic development initiatives, cultural exchanges and environmental conservation. The present conflicts that we observe clearly demonstrate the inefficacy of the UN Security Council as an international conflict resolution body.
After the attacks on 9/11, we witnessed a shift in the balance of power paradigm and strategic equations; the only superpower (the US) was not a superpower anymore. The rise of a stronger and more assertive Russia has further complicated the international balance of power. But current conflicts that we are seeing are not as simple as struggle for world dominance in a bipolar or multi-polar world. Post 9/11 conflicts have less to do with the political, economic and military dominance and more to do with ideological and cultural dominance. The rise of militant Islam from the shadows of political Islam has posed a very serious threat to world peace. This Islamic offense is largely state sponsored but not state controlled. It is a decentralized war towards the only goal to have a Sharia-ruled world. We are witnessing large scale bloodshed justified as ‘Jihad’ (the holy war). Islamic nations and liberal media have been trying to subvert any attempt that is made to expose this religious genocide by Islamic terrorists. Despite the US first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign against the abduction of non-Muslim Nigerian girls by Boko-Haram, the world has very few options against these dreaded terrorists.
Like any other terrorist group, Islamic terrorism is locally organized, but unlike other groups, they have global coordination and understanding. Each Islamic terror outfit complements and helps the other. They often assert their ultimate goal of ‘Darul Islam’ – with Islam imposed on the entire world. Using such terrorists (as chess pawns) by the US, Russia and China in their ongoing proxy-war for regional power balance could be self-defeating. You would think that the rise of a stronger Taliban and the 9/11 attacks on the US would have taught us this lesson. However, we can see that as Russia continues to resurrect its former powerful self, the US continues to use local Jihadi organizations in its quest for maintaining regional power dominance to counter Russia and surging China. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is fighting the US in the same way the US is fighting it and countering it at every level. The prolonged Syrian crisis and the rise of ISIS are a result of indirect US assistance to these terror outfits. Now ISIS has not only killed thousands of ‘impure Muslims’ or Kafirs, the Shias, but it has also committed the largest cultural genocide of the 21st century. One hears on a daily basis how these ISIS Jihadis are blowing up ancient temples, artifacts, Shia mosques, Christians churches etc. Mosul (in Iraq) was once home to the tomb of prophet Jonas and today, it stands as a pile of dust – thanks to ISIS’ cultural terrorism.
Even though thinkers like Samuel Huntington had warned of a new world order based on the clashes of Islam vs. Other Cultures long back, his home nation has officially refused to learn from it. The US’s much talked ‘War on Terror’ has only proved to be ‘Aide to Terror’ by raising and nurturing new terror outfits. Russia, on other hand, has adopted the expansionist approach, already practiced by China in Asia. The multitude of these cultural and regional conflicts is untamed in absence of an effective conflict-resolution platform. This untamed set of conflicts runs the collective risk of pushing powerful nation states in to full-scale war of global proportions.
It is under this backdrop that a coalition of nations against Islamic Terrorism should be formed. This coalition would serve the same purpose as the medieval Crusades which saved Europe from cultural genocide by Islamic invaders. If such a coalition is formed, it could be the most terrifying news for liberals who usually ignore ongoing genocide by Jihadi terrorists inflicted upon Hindus, Christians, Ahmadiyas, Tribals in Islamic nations and so on. So before a full-scale global war happens, these conflicts could be and should be resolved using mutual understanding between major nations of the world. The financial assistance and weapons trade should be cut-off from a conflict zone. The diversity of world culture and faith must be defended at any cost as it is not only our common heritage but also our common existence!
Author’s profile:
Amit Srivastava is an entrepreneur and youth activist. He has done his PhD from JNU, New Delhi and MPhil in Planning and Development from IIT Bombay. Amit also holds NET-JRF from CSIR. He has done extensive field research on Rural Development, Geospatial Sciences and Disaster Management domains. He is a founder member and national spokesperson of the ‘Youth for Equality’ movement and successfully led YFE’s ideological conquest against the united-left front in JNU. He has been actively contributing to national policy debates through several platforms. In the past, he had contributed as a Citizen Journalist with CNN-IBN and MeriNews. He encourages youth to participate in politics and political debate. To gather and exchange the opinions of youth groups, he founded Simply Yuva, a web magazine. At present he is associated with the World Hindu Economic Forum and Hindu Youth and Student Forum.
