Broad anti-terrorism policy must be applied to tackle regional extremism

What the media is saying about the rise of terrorism in the region. Translated by Racha Makarem

The events that took the Arab world by storm in 2011 were anything but harbingers of “spring”, but they still represent a new chapter in the history of the Arab world and Arab republics, wrote Abdullah Al Otaibi in the Abu Dhabi-based daily Al Ittihad.

“Many Arab countries seem to be heading down the road to failure. Armed militias have replaced what should have been modern national states,” he argued.

Egypt was briefly “hijacked” by the Muslim Brotherhood, he wrote, until the army reclaimed power. Nonetheless, remnants of extremist groups continue to be active.

Libya seems to have morphed into the worst kind of militia state. The terrorist groups there, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, are exerting every effort to burn the country and its people, he argued.

In Yemen, the militia system continues to run amok. Houthi militias besiege the capital Sanaa and threaten the independence of Yemen, rivalled only by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

But none of these militia states seems more threatening than the one taking shape in Syria.

“The international community’s failure to make any decisions against the Assad regime and the weakening state has opened the gates for these militias to wreak havoc across the country. Syria has been turned into a recruitment centre for terrorists from every part of the world and for the indoctrination of new generations of extremists,” he added.

If they are to succeed in turning the tide, these countries will require international and regional intervention in the framework of a broad anti-terrorism strategy, in addition to a comprehensive review of political positions towards what was known as the Arab Spring.

In the same vein, the columnist Jihad Al Khazen argued in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat: what goes around comes around. It is the West that is responsible for the Islamist groups’ terrorism.

European countries are especially wary of the extremist threat, Al Khazen wrote, especially as, in many cases, it is a threat from within. Figures indicate that a quarter of all foreign jihadists that have joined ISIL are from the UK. And some of them have made their way back.

“The same applies to France and Germany, where citizens have been practising jihad in Iraq and Syria and threatening to return to Europe with their terrorist ways.”

The columnist Salman Al Dosari wrote an opinion article in the London-based daily Asharq Al Awsat to emphasise the global nature of terrorism.

“As ISIL and its affiliates inch ever closer to the borders of Europe, western leaders are scrambling to contain the impending threat. They can finally see that terrorism is far-reaching and can’t be contained in one location.”

But the dilemma in this case is that any steps the West makes against terrorism would be a reaction linked to political interests, the writer argued.

“The world had yet to see a proper anti-terrorism strategy,” the writer noted. “There a difference between having an unrelenting anti-terrorism strategy and engaging in sporadic anti-terrorism battles.”