Terrorism in the Middle East must be tackled before more people suffer

What the Arabic press has to say about the current wave of terrorism in the region. Translated by Carla Mirza

Violence has sharply risen with conflicts multiplying in the region and beyond. These conflicts are giving rise to jihadi and extremist groups.

Yesterday’s editorial in the pan-Arab daily Asharq El Awsat said: “The responsibility of fighting terrorism is no longer limited to one or two countries, or even a regional organisation or a group of countries. Terrorism has turned into a global plague, an international danger; so all countries must unite capabilities to combat and vanquish it.

“When the Sars epidemic broke out, the world did not declare it to be the responsibility of one single country, nor did it blame one single country for the spread of the disease. There was an upsurge of solidarity to intensify international cooperation and unite efforts to fight the disease.”

Terrorism, the editorial said, is a disease, which can be “far more catastrophic than bodily diseases and putting political blame on a country or another is neither responsible nor helpful. The real necessity here is to practically fight terrorism and rid Muslims of it before they star to feel its repercussions”.

Compromise is no longer an option; the time has come for a true and complete confrontation, it said. “In addition to all damages incurred, these groups constitute a great threat to the existence of Arab countries as we know them, specially in the Fertile Crescent”.

From there springs the necessity of confronting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its allies. “It is a moral, religious and civilisational duty. This requires honest intentions and determination,” the paper concluded.

In the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, the columnist Erfaan Nedhamuldeen remarked that the “hatching” of Al Qaeda and its multiplicity is the result of the chaos that followed the death of Osama bin Laden.

“Various leaderships surfed the waves of the Arab Spring, which made their way to squares through doors left wide open. This explains the appearance of ISIL, Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda in Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, and similar organisations in the Maghreb, Ansar Al Shariaa in Egypt and its sister organisation in Libya, which reached Mali and Central Africa and, at last, Boko Haram in Nigeria,” he opined. “While the West is worried because an increasing number of young people from there are joining extremist groups, specially in Syria and Iraq, most countries in the region have concerns over the implications of this chaos.”

“They [the region] fear a repetition of the ‘returnees from Afghanistan’ phenomenon and subsequent terrorist operations,” the writer said.

As a result of the rising tide of terrorism in the region, the number of refugees and displaced around the world keeps increasing to a terrifying dimension, remarked Mohammed Obaid in the Sharjah-based Al Khaleej.

“The world has not seen such exodus since the Second World War. The United Nations confirmed that this scenario will alter the world’s demographic structure, even in countries that do not share borders with points of tension and crisis,” he added.

In the light of this phenomenon, “the global crisis may escalate and lead to a yet bigger increase in the number of refugees and displaced, as crises seem to continuously multiply and escalate”, he concluded.