Why is middle east so violent

Conscious of the importance of winning hearts and minds, Bin Laden sold his message to Muslims and even Americans as self-defence, not aggression.

This kind of justification, however, carries no weight with IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who cannot care less what the world thinks of his blood-letting. In fact, he and his cohorts revel in displaying barbarity and coming across as savage. In contrast to the first two waves, IS actually stresses violent action over theology and theory, and has produced no repertoire of ideas to sustain and nourish its social base.

It is a killing machine powered by blood and iron. Going beyond Bin Laden's doctrine that "when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse", al-Baghdadi's "victory through terrorism" signals to friends and foes that IS is a winning horse. Get out of the way or you will be crushed; join our caravan and make history. Increasing evidence shows that over the past few months, hundreds, if not thousands, of diehard former Islamist enemies of IS, such as the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic Front, answered al-Baghdadi's call.

IS' sophisticated outreach campaign appeals to disaffected and deluded young Sunnis worldwide because it is seen as a powerful vanguard that delivers victory and salvation.

Far from abhorring the group's brutality, young recruits are attracted by its shock-and-awe tactics against the enemies of Islam. Its exploits on the battlefield - especially capturing huge swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, and establishing a caliphate - resonate near and far. The Jerusalem Report. Jerusalem Post Lite. March of the living. Kabbalat Shabbat. Shapers of Israel. Maariv Online. Maariv News. Tools and services. JPost Premium. Ulpan Online.

JPost Newsletter. JPost News Ticker. Thus, what began as reform-minded local protests against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad morphed into a multi-sided war with the intervention of Russia, Turkey, Iran and the US, each bolstering state forces or their opponents only to draw out the war beyond the point where one side was likely to run out of steam, surrender or admit defeat.

Second, decades of foreign intervention have granted leeway to Middle East autocrats to rule not by virtue of democratic credentials, but by their connection with foreign powers.

A perceived special relationship with Washington or Moscow, for example, confers legitimacy and status upon client states and non-state actors , even as their own people have risen up to challenge their unchecked power.

Indeed, this might be the reason the Middle East is the locus of choice today for foreign powers to act out their proxy conflicts.

Quite simply, there are willing Middle East clients — whether autocratic rulers or opposition activists — for almost any foreign power willing to confer legitimacy. A failure to rationalize this gives rise to a contradiction: While parts of the region are awash with anti-American sentiment, the pullback of US troops from the Middle East is blamed for rising insecurity.

It has the tools and power to wrap its wounds. Clearly, the Middle East is no parallel to the US. This article was provided by Syndication Bureau , which holds copyright. The actions of that one medieval ruler are just one window into a much longer reality.

Though of course there were conflicts, the truth is that coexistence has been as much the default in the Middle East as it has been anywhere else. To ignore that truth in declaring that the region is one where conflict is normal is damaging, and dehumanizing. That attitude makes people in the region unknowable and unsympathetic — and thus, ironically, only makes conflict more likely. Her longer essay on this topic can be found in the recently-published reader Whose Middle Ages? Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past.

The original version of this story misspelled the name of a former Deputy National Security Adviser. She is K. McFarland, not K. Contact us at letters time. Aerial view of the citadel in the ancient city of Aleppo, Syria.