A violent day for the Middle East and Europe and a particularly disturbing day for the Gulf. The attack on tourists in Tunisia, the beheading of a man in France and the suicide bomb attack on worshippers in Kuwait, add up to a particular gruesome attack, on tourists, civilians – and civilisation itself.
The thoughts of the region will be with those affected. Leading the condolences was Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, who called the Emir of Kuwait within hours of the attacks. Reiterating the support of the country for Kuwait, Sheikh Mohammed said the resolve of the GCC in fighting terrorism was strong. “The acts that target mosques and innocent people during this holy month are in fact against Islam and its tolerant teachings calling for compassion and forgiveness,” he said.
As Anwar Gargash, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said on Friday night, the terrorists have created new widows and orphans and sought to destabilise peace and security. This deviant ideology, whether expressed through the militants of ISIL, or through warped individuals in lone wolf attacks, will not prevail.
These terrorists seek to spread fear. They seek soft targets – in Tunisia, the beach attack came months after a similar attack on the popular Bardo Museum in the capital. In both cases, the aim was to go after the vital tourism sector.
The attack in Kuwait was particularly cowardly, yet ISIL have used this exact tactic in recent months elsewhere on the Arabian Peninsula. In March, a suicide bomber struck a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in Yemen’s capital Sanaa. Last month, Saudi Arabia was struck by two mosque attacks. Now, Kuwait has come under attack.
In all these cases, the attackers sought to do what ISIL and others did in Iraq: split the Sunni Arabs from their Shia brothers, and sow division and sectarianism. It will not work. The two main branches of Islam have lived peacefully side by side and intermarried for centuries. In Iraq, division was only achieved because of the failures of politics. The countries of the Gulf and Yemen must not, and will not, make that same mistake.
Nor is it even possible to imagine these attackers were acting in the name of Islam, as they claim. The ISIL attack is not the only one this week on civilians – on the same day as the Kuwait attack, ISIL fighters rampaged through Kobani, killing men, women and children. What bizarre reading of any religious text allows such slaughter? Indeed, any religious justification is belied by ISIL’s own actions. Even during war, Ramadan is traditionally a time for fighting to cease, or at least pause. ISIL, instead, ramps up its brutality.
Europe, North Africa and the Middle East are now part of the same battle, because, to the terrorists of ISIL, we are all part of the same battlefield. Only by using all the considerable resources at our disposal – intelligence gathering, closer political cooperation, military means and an intellectual war – can the scourge be defeated. We will need stay united, as allied countries and as communities, in this long battle for civilisation.
