Different story,

same war
Recently, economist and journalist Loretta Napoleoni released a book titled The Islamist Phoenix: The Islamic State and the Redrawing of the Middle East, which attempts a new understanding of Isis. Succinct and clear, the text is an attempt to explain the Islamic State phenomenon in relation to the history of Salafism, western colonialism/imperialism in the Middle East and the seemingly endless war on the Muslim people by the nominally Christian west.
She is careful to explain, however, that the religious aspect is not the fundamental cause of these wars. Instead, like the wars between Protestants and Catholics in Europe around the time of the Reformation, the underlying reasons for the war are power and conquest.
In numerous ways, Isis is a modern phenomenon. Its goals are not a return to a time before modernity, at least not when it comes to communications, industry and other contemporary economic phenomena. The Islamic State’s sophisticated use of social media proves this. Indeed, their understanding that media can create perceptions not born out by facts is essential to Isis’ public relations effort. In addition, its corralling of and profiting from important natural resources are also evidence of this fact.
Women and girls are treated slightly different, too. Even though girls are usually allowed to attend school, the Islamic State’s misogynistic interpretation of Islam makes females’ freedom to move about incredibly difficult and even dangerous. Music is heard
in towns and villages recently incorporated into Isis territory.
The crucial difference between the Islamic State and other jihadist organizations is its emphasis on controlling territory. This essentially certifies their intention to create an actual state. By taking advantage of political and other differences between the various factions and states of the Arab world, IS has been able to consolidate territory at a rapid pace.
Ultimately, the leaders of Isis hope

to truly create a modern nation state based on the Salafist Islam understanding of the world, not the understanding of European colonialists, US imperialists or their ideologies. Challenging those who refuse to accept the idea that such a state is either justified or possible, Napoleoni asks the reader if it wasn’t a similar concept – the retrieval of land historically claimed by a people who once lived there – that informed the creation of Israel. Continuing the Israel analogy, she points out that Israel, too, was created through a campaign of terror.
Napoleoni boldly asks if officials of the US may one day be shaking hands with officials of a recognised Islamic State. Although the current political situation seems to indicate this scenario will never happen, the only military solution that could end Isis’ existence is one that would likely kill thousands of innocents. Military solutions have never worked in the long-term (and rarely in the short term) in the Arab world. There is nothing to indicate that this has changed. Napoleoni ends her short book with a call for all parties to attempt consensus, no matter how difficult it might be; no matter how repulsive each party finds the other. One wonders how much bloodshed it will take before those in a position to consider the ideas in her text will do so. One also wonders if by then it will be too late.
Excerpted from: ‘Different Story, Same Futile War’. Courtesy: Counterpunch.org