ISIL Threat Requires “Globalised Response” – Sheikh Mohammed

The growing threat posed by militant group Islamic State (ISIL) “can and will be defeated militarily” by the international coalition that is currently fighting it, according to the UAE’s Vice President and Prime Minster, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

In a column posted by local daily The National, Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Dubai’s ruler, wrote that a “globalised threat” such as ISIL requires a “globalised response.”

The UAE is part of an international US-led coalition, which is currently conducting airstrikes over ISIL strongholds in Syria. The strikes aim to “degrade and destroy” the militants, US President Barack Obama said.

The group, which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, France, Australia and the UK, among other countries, is rapidly gaining support worldwide.

However, Sheikh Mohammed asserted military action would not resolve the issue.

“Military containment is only a partial solution. Lasting peace requires three bigger ingredients: winning the intellectual battle, upgrading weak governance and grassroots human development.

“Such a solution must begin with concerted international political will. Not a single politician in North America, Europe, Africa, or Asia can afford to ignore events in the Middle East,” he wrote.

He appreciated the work being done in Saudi to de-radicalise youth through counselling centres and programmes.

“ISIL is a barbaric and brutal organisation. It represents neither Islam nor humanity’s most basic values. Nonetheless, it has emerged, spread and resisted those who oppose it. What we are fighting is not just a terrorist organisation, but the embodiment of a malicious ideology that must be defeated intellectually,” he wrote.

He added: “I consider this ideology to be the greatest danger that the world will face in the next decade.

“The destruction of terrorist groups is not enough to bring lasting peace. We must also strike at the root to deprive their dangerous ideology of the power to rise again among people left vulnerable by an environment of hopelessness and desperation.”

He also offered a three-part solution, including “countering malignant ideas with enlightened thinking”; supporting governments’ efforts to create stable institutions; and “addressing the black holes in human development that afflict many areas of the Middle East.”

“Sustainable development is the most sustainable answer to terrorism,” he wrote.