In my last article I dealt with the issue of psychological studies as a pivotal fulcrum in dealing with the terrorism phenomenon, as one aspect of a comprehensive and integrated treatment of this phenomenon, along with security, cultural, economic, developmental, educational, media and social treatments. The truth is that in the Arab and Muslim world, comprehensive integrated and multi-duration strategies to counter terrorist ideology have not yet materialized, and most of what is actually applied around us are reactions and short-term plans and tactics that are limited in term and effectiveness in dealing with this dangerous phenomenon.
And one of the most prominent aspects of the negative effect of this is to allow the duplication of terrorist organizations and groups, and even to provide the necessary environment for random mosaic reproduction, which guarantees geographical deployment capacity to these groups and allows them to benefit from the backlog of terrorism experiences and to avoid the mistakes of predecessors, which fully explains the reasons for the development of “Daesh” compared with “Al Qaeda” and the evolution of the latter compared with the first generation organizations such as the traditional “Islamic Jihad” and “Takfir wal Hijra” and other terrorist groups that appeared in the Egyptian arena specifically, during the last decades of the twentieth century.
We have to examine carefully the reasons for the transmission of terrorism from individual thought and practices to octopus organizations that began with traditional terrorist networks, and quickly evolved to embrace the thought of building an alleged state, which is the “Caliphate State”, which is currently in control in Iraq and Syria on wide geographical areas, and controls the natural resources and a number of residents that outweigh areas of major countries that have the right to “veto” in the UN Security Council !!
There is also the question of the need to study the phenomenon of terrorism in light of the shifts and strategic changes the Arab region witnessed in recent decades, and to scrutinize the roots of the phenomenon not only in terms of religious fundamentalism, which many get absorbed in, ignoring the impact of other factors that are not less influential.
And as observers, researchers and specialists, we must not lose sight of the impact of emergency strategic factors such as the results of the British investigation on the invasion of Iraq, for example, in providing terrorist organizations with a mobilization energy that helps them in their mobilization and persuasion work for perhaps many years to come. It is also necessary to pay attention to the danger of the disintegration of ancient countries such as Iraq, Syria and the continued chaos in Libya and the spread of terrorism and the absence of a state in Yemen, and the impact of all this in spreading terrorism. It is sufficient to note that Yemen, for instance, has been and remains a point of concentration for terrorist organizations.
What I want to emphasize is the need to rely on science and planning in dealing with hazardous and even existential phenomena that have a decisive influence on the future of the countries of the Arab and Islamic world, such as the phenomenon of terrorism. It is a pity to leave the media, for example, to amateurs and random practices that build an insulator wall, stronger than the demolished Berlin wall, separating between peoples and their countries. Erosion of the credibility of the media and their stigmatization as lying and deviating from the communities priorities represents a disaster by all standards, even if its random practices resulted in fast responses and results that identify with the current objectives and priorities. Also, continuing to ignore the elements of earnestness and scientific planning in the development of education in many Arab countries, most of which fall at the bottom of the lists and international classifications for the advancement and development of education, is a disaster by all standards, because this means a comprehensive destruction of the future, and the construction of states without real substrates on which these states can rely in the future so as to continue the genuine construction and development process.
There is also a problem related to the weakness or absence of plans and programs of social smelting and building loyalty and belonging and national identity among generations exposed to cosmic breakthroughs by the hour via the Internet and the ideas and beliefs it pumps, ideas and beliefs that break through geographical borders and national identities; and the problem is that such ideas are still labeled as conspiracy ideas and accused of anti-states and nations without a real positive move to build an objective equivalent that prevents breakthroughs of the hearts and minds of future generations!
Previously there were competent ministries and bodies specialized in youth, culture and media, bodies that still exist for the most part now, but their roles are not clear and are almost absent in many Arab and Islamic countries. Government entities concerned with young people have no knowledge of the youth except sports clubs and football players and maybe some other sports lesser-known, while there is a complete absence of a real interest in young people, who are the rationale of being of these entities, and they are left to the organizations of civil and civic action that share with them in charity work, some of such organizations work for the benefit of the communities, but others are representing long-term plans of parties and organizations that have unknown or known objectives!
It is a disaster by all standards to settle for rhetoric chattering without a real effort in the face of the penetration of the phenomenon of terrorism in many Arab and Islamic societies, and the biggest disaster is that there is an amount of awareness of the real causes of this phenomenon and what fuels it on the ground!
It is not logical or acceptable that some people in the Arab and Muslim world settle for laying the responsibility for the worsening of terrorism on Western super-powers and cosmic conspiracies, and other explanations aimed at disavowing responsibility and laying it on unknown entities, and it is also not logical to nurture an equivalent case of opposite extremism to find a kind of balance or to build an illusionary objective equivalent for terrorism. Such experiments are historically outdated, and some countries paid heavy prices for them, and it is prudent to address the real causes of the phenomenon of terrorism, and to engage society, science and development with this issue.
