The challenge of the Islamic State

Abstract

The Islamic State, proclaimed on 29 June 2014, has tremendously shaken up the Middle East and the whole world forcing hostile and friendly states alike to close ranks and create a collective military platform to fight and contain this new danger before it spirals out of control. This analysis probes the threats and the challenges the Islamic State poses to the West and its Middle Eastern allies and examines why the challenges warranted a military response spearheaded by the USA. It argues that the Islamic State – which has captured and currently controls vast swathes across the Iraq-Syria borders – poses formidable ideational challenges to the West, beyond its military threats to the Middle Eastern states, that question the very base and organizing principles of western political order and the West's dominance over the Middle East, what is better dubbed “Eurocentrism” – a concept that articulates and sustains western claim to universalism. Unless coerced into submission or, at least, defeated militarily, the Islamic State looks certain to effectively challenge eurocentric ideas and promote its own version of Islamic universalism.

Keywords:

• Eurocentrism and the West
• ideological challenge
• Iran
• Iraq
• Islamic State
• Syria
• territorial challenge

Notes

1. See the first issue of Dabiq, the official magazine of the IS, published in the Arabic month of Ramadan, 1435(h). Retrieved from https://ia902500.us.archive.org/24/items/dbq01_desktop_endbq01_desktop_en.pdf.

2. Dabiq, issue no. 1, 1435 (H). Retrieved from https://ia802500.us.archive.org/24/items/dbq01_desktop_en/dbq01_desktop_en.pdf, p. 7.

3. Certainly, the borders of the post-colonial states in Asia, Africa and Latin America were not demarcated based on the organizing principles of Westphalia, that is, the principles of autonomy and sovereignty for culturally and linguistically homogeneous peoples who would operate from within their respective territorial boundaries called the nation-states. In reality, culturally and linguistically groups were divided across state boundaries sowing the seeds for deadly conflicts in the future. Take, for example, the case of the Kurdish people in the Middle East who were denied the opportunity to form and declare their own nation-state and currently live under the control of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. The West's political and military support for humanitarian causes, particularly the “responsibility to protect” driven military actions in Libya to save the civilians from the atrocities of the Gaddafi government, also seriously undermines the principles of non-interference and sovereign prerogatives of the Westphalian system.

4. Dabiq, issue no. 4, 2014, carried a feature story “The revival of slavery before the hour” to justify the enslavement of Syria's Yazidis considered a pagan community. Retrieved from http://media.clarionproject.org/files/islamic-state/islamic-state-isis-magazine-Issue-4-the-failed-crusade.pdf.