There is a war going on. There always seems to be some violent conflict somewhere in the world. Violence leads to unavoidable displacement, families forced from their homes to escape approaching violence. Sometimes the displacement is more dramatic than others, but it just so happens that a very large portion of the Syrian population has been uprooted and chased away. The global community must determine where to direct the refugees of the civil war in Syria. Many families can end up in neighboring countries, relatively distant states or even in countries located across the globe, such as the United States. The refugees can be admitted through borders as working migrants, refugees or be granted citizenship, but what about those who are unable to be offered proficient housing/care from crisis relief?
Some individuals constantly have to be moved from camp to camp, leaving little sense of stability. The incessant upheaval, living in a life of fear and uncertainty, and the anger that comes with all of that confusion can lead to the desperation for a constant. This usually leads to individuals reaching out for an anchor — a sense of community and safety. Islamism, recently, has offered many youth in the east what they desire.
ISIS has capitalized the incurred chaos within Syria by encouraging young men and women to join their “cause." To understand how it recruits thousands of young fighters, we must first understand some of the foundational aspects of Islam and the radical movement of Islamism.
Let us first take a look at Islam in regards to its perspective of community.
The Islamic Caliphate is one core concepts of the ideology itself, a form of government that is combined with religion (non-secular). This type of government naturally demands expansion, so empires have been regularly been associated with it, such as the Ottoman Empire or the Muslim Empire. Another key concept of Islam is the “Umma” or Islamic community. The Umma is the entire global Muslim community, not merely confined to a state’s borders. Muslims are expected to conduct themselves for the benefit of the Umma based on the values of Islam. The recent movement of Islamism, also supported by ISIS, has been the golden ticket to stability and sense of belonging for many. Young fighters are promised food, housing and, most importantly, a sense of community and purpose. This purpose, to spread the reaches of the Umma across the globe, acts as a sense of stability and common goal that can make these refugees feel “safe” (though they are far from it). Aside from the attractive characteristics of Islamism, the refugees are not given much in terms of other options.
There are camps in few neighboring states that offer temporary sanctuary, but those are a far cry away from an actual sense of security; these people have temporarily lost their national identity, and are desperately looking for some sort of anchor. Unfortunately, the refugees don’t have much of anywhere else to go. Five wealthy Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain) have refused to accept any refugees. Of the 4 million that have fled from Syria, most have had to take shelter in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan or Iraq. The remainder has tried to make it to Western Europe; Germany has taken approximately 450,000 refugees recently, and France has taken in several thousand refugees, despite recent terrorist attacks in Paris. The United States and Canada have decided to allow more than 10,000 refugees through their borders, respectively. However, most refugees are placed in camps. Again, this leads back to the discussion of many young refugees’ desperation for an anchor; while most of the world is resistant to them, ISIS openly encourages people to join its cause.
While many Syrian refugees are trying to escape the violence of both their government and ISIS, the Islamic State has been working hard to convince the refugees to flee “humiliation” in Europe and join its cause. The Islamic State has put together a propaganda team charged with the duty of acquiring refugee recruits and has recently released a video online for that purpose. The video contains clips of refugees being confronted by police with tear gas, water cannons, and other violent methods of riot control.
Recently, Germany’s open gate policy has come back to bite; since the Germans began to allow Syrian refugees to pass through their borders, a frighteningly drastic increase of rape cases have been reported within the last year. This can be explained as a combination of both severe, pent up frustrations within refugees and a clash of cultures. The Syrian (Eastern European) and German (Western European) social cultures are relatively different from the social perspective. These two things, extreme manifestation of stress and large-scale cultural clashing, can result in a toxic combination that could result in public outrage and economic despair. The bad news coming of Germany either reaffirms multiple countries’ decision not to permit refugees to enter or instills doubts within those who are currently allowing large numbers of refugees to enter. It would appear that both rejecting and accepting refugees have ominous side effects.
Many refugees are staying in Lebanon. However, there are no official camps and most of the (very sub-standard) housing, food and other necessities that are provided come from non-government organizations. Other funding comes from the European Commission’s humanitarian aid. In fact, the Syrian refugee crisis is the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. Countries like the United Kingdom and United States (or about half of each) wish to not become mixed up with the crisis, because of the economic, social and security concerns that refugee admittance will present. Russia has only taken in Christian refugees and the northern section of Iraq (basically it’s own country) has taken in ethnically Kurdish refugees.
ISIS wants the world powers to turn refugees away, because it will give them nowhere to go. The trapped refugees could arguably join the Islamic State; seeing that it may be the only secure option left. On the other hand, admittance of Syrian refugees poses major threats to economic stability. Other concerns have to do primarily with security of the native citizenship of the states. What if terrorist plants make it inside any Western country (a threat that countries are very sensitive to after the shootings/bombings in Paris). What seems to be the best option?
