It’s been an unthinkably tragic couple of weeks, with the attacks in Lebanon and particularly Paris drawing worldwide condemnation of ISIS and a surge of debate around Islam and Immigration. Here’s ten things that personally helped me make sense of the way the we respond to terror.
- The majority of Syrian Refugees are educated with at least a secondary school qualification. 25% have college degrees.
- Refugees complement a labour market rather than displace jobs for citizens.
- In Germany, levels of crime among refugees are lower than that of the population. They’re accepting 1 million in 2015.
- In the US, the asylum process seems to be comprehensive, following several overhauls post 9/11. Applications take a year or two to complete and include:
- Screening by several agencies
- Background Checks
- Interviews by experts trained to assess if they’re authentic refugees.
All of which may still be elementary at best considering the state of these people’s lives but, regardless:
- There’ve been no cases of terrorism or intent to carry out terrorist acts in the US among refugees since 9/11 (Two tried to leave to join terrorist groups and were apprehended).
There was a Fake Syrian Passport found near a suicide bomber in Paris. It’s unclear whether he posed as a refugee with it or if he was even a Syrian National but it’s disturbed politicians everywhere. Some authorities have suggested it was planted there by ISIS as ‘a false trail’ of evidence back to refugees.
- There are about 60 nations either dropping bombs, providing training or arming government forces fighting ISIS. America, Russia and the UK have done a lot of the bombing.
So have Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Muslim nations have contributed boots on the ground or have armed those fighting ISIS. Some of these include the Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish groups (People’s Protection Unit), Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Morocco, Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, and Egypt.
Some nations like Indonesia and Brunei have condemned ISIS but not involved themselves, quoting public safety risks from radicals in their populations.
After Paris, Iran is readying to join the effort.
- ISIS troops, estimated to number anywhere between 31,000 (US figures) and 200,000 (Kurdish figures) have remained resistant to bombing for quite some time, but are popularly believed to have been contained in the meantime by Iraqi and Syrian forces, with the aid of US-led airstrikes.
- In the last fortnight they lost a crucial transport hub (Sinjar) between their two main strongholds, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
- ISIS has claimed responsibility for previous attacks that weren’t their own:
- The Sydney Siege
- The Canadian Parliamentary attack
- The lone Axe-man in New York last year
While the evidence is mixed whether the Paris attacks were planned from Syria or not, it’s interesting to note that ISIS emphasize, in their monthly magazine, the importance of claiming responsibility for major terrorist acts, thereby promoting their reach.
Muslim leaders, particularly in Iran, Qatar, Kuwait and Indonesia have condemned the attacks, a sentiment obviously shared by the Muslim countries listed that are fighting ISIS. While symbolic in nature, it’s worth noting the thousands of Muslims who have used the hashtags #IAmaMuslim and #MuslimsAreNotTerrorist to show solidarity against ISIS in the last week. Muslim leaders in western nations have unequivocally condemned the attacks.
The argument could be made that Non-western Muslim authorities should be more vocal in their condemnation. But it’s also been acknowledged by scholars that Islam has a ‘leadership crisis’, with nothing to remotely resemble the authority figures that, say, the Catholic church has in it’s Pope and Bishops, with many schisms and differing interpretations of the Quran dominating these debates.
- ISIL’s goal is to kick-start the war of Armageddon, a stand-off between people who believe in Allah, and those that don’t.
It is of course possible that heinous and unforgivable terrorist attacks are carried out with this in mind.
References
Zero Refugee terrorists in the US:
Syrian Refugees in Germany commit less crime than the general population: http://www.thelocal.de/20151113/police-refugees-commit-less-crimes-than-germans
‘Last Week Tonight’ on Refugee contributions to economies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umqvYhb3wf4
Countries fighting ISIS:
Anti-ISIS coalition has mobilized up to 62 nations and groups
ISIS strategy from Australian News Outlet ‘The Project’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxNJLkIkYQM
Did ISIS leaders plan the attack or not?
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/16/europe/paris-terror-attack-mastermind-abdelhamid-abaaoud/
jared lanigan 