ISIS or its clones will take long time before they disappear

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Dec 7, 2015 at 22:34

Dear Dr Pipes,

I disagree with you on two counts and partially agree on the third. Let me explain. First, I dont think ISIS is a little bug. If you consider ISIS as an entity different from the Talebans, boko-haram, El-qaeda, Muslim brotherhood, lashkar-e-taeba, PLO, and ISI (pakistan's intelligence agency) then you might be right in saying that ISIS is a little bug that will disappear soon. But I see ISIS as the latest embodiment of the thought process that believes in Islamic expansion at all costs. In the modern times, it started as Muslim league in pre-independence India, and got got reborn as PLO, as Talebans, as El-qaeda, as boko-haram and so on. ISIS is the latest flavor of Islamic expansionism and it is not a small bug.

Second, it will be wrong to assume that ISIS has made enemies of everyone. Indeed, the latest deeds of Islamic fundamentalists have been so ugly that there is an unprecedented amount of expression against it in almost all non-islamic countries. But ISIS has friends throughout the Islamic world. The San Bernandino killers came from Pakistan, the Paris killers came from northern Africa, and the people who blew up the Russian plane in the middle east came from some other such God-foresaken country. So ISIS is not friendless.

Finally, you are partly right that Iran will be a major threat if it acquires nuclear capabilities but I think it will not be any bigger threat than any other Islamic outfit that acquires nuclear capabilities.

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