The Syria’s conflict, which began six years ago, has inflicted heavy casualties upon the Syrian nation and the rights and freedoms of countless individuals were violated. Warring factions, paid no heed to the rule of war and the involvement of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) deteriorated the situation. The ideologue groups, mainly the ISIL, seek to exercise their radical ideology and impose it on people with the barrel of gun.
The ideologue groups come from various backgrounds. It is believed that the gap between the haves and have-nots prompted a number of people to join militant groups so that they can fill the spiritual vacuum and satiate their carnal desires through violence and bloodshed. For instance, the teenagers from the slums show great tendency towards radicalism and the tribal belts and rural areas are more prone to radical mindsets.
Psychologists believe that the individuals who suffer from common deprivation in a society will form sub-culture with its certain values and norms different from public standards. There will be a competition between the upper class and lower class. Both the classes seek to get high social status. This competition starts from schools between the children belonging to the upper and lower classes. Since the lower class does not have the chance and opportunity of the upper one, this group will be surpassed by upper class. Therefore, the lower class will show a hostile reaction. Now members of terrorist networks are constituted mostly by teenagers who come from the lower class. In brief, the larger parts of terrorist groups seek to alleviate their economic pressures rather than exercising a certain ideology.
If children are labelled negatively, they will show inclination towards the same fact. For instance, when a child is detained for committing a crime or accused of a crime and labelled as criminal, this will change their pictures of their personality in their minds. Many children might have been labelled during their school or on streets by their paly-mates. This will put an adverse effect in the mind of a potential criminal and change them into active one. Many of the children who are involved in terrorist activities were socialized in the same background or in a radicalized atmosphere.
Emil Durkhem, a French sociologist, believes that crime and violation of social norms are natural in a society and a society void of crime will be abnormal. According to him, crime will prompt the society to take preventive measures so as to protect social standards. Moreover, crime will lead to the designation of moral and immoral borders and public reactions towards crime will make people understand the legal norms.
Currently, the terrorist groups who are widely involved in violence and bloodshed come from closed structures and have been socialized in tribal belts. That is to say, a number of individuals have formed sub-culture to fight governments. For instance, the late Mullah Omar formed a small group to fight moral corruptions prevailed in his surrounding areas in Kandahar. To one’s unmitigated surprise, his group was armed and grew rapidly and has been changed into a terrorist group. It was soon changed into pawn to be used in political games.
Similarly, the ISIL group, which plays a destructive role and threatens the entire globe, is formed by a number of radical individuals. Under religious term, they declared “Jihad-e-Nikah” to satiate their carnal desires, for they were deprived of girlfriends or wives in their normal life. Simultaneously, they will feel no mercy on men, women and children since being labelled terrorists.
It is not only Syria which suffers from militancy carried out by the radical groups but also many other countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. The sufferings of mankind are likely to be changed into an endless scenario, mainly with the increase of terrorist groups. Human rights and dignity are violated to a great extent and men’s freedoms are curtailed in one way or another. Syria bears the brunt of ISIL’s venom. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, has said recently that there are so far about 465,000 people killed and missing in Syria’s civil war. It had documented the deaths of more than 321,000 people since the start of the war and more than 145,000 others had been reported as missing.
The United Nations said fighting around Syria’s capital has cut off 300,000 people from humanitarian assistance and pauses in the conflict are needed to allow aid convoys to get to the area.
The Syria’s destructive war has been intensified by the ISIL group and human rights are trampled upon in the worst possible way. To mitigate the insurgency – be it in Syria or any other countries – the grounds and factors of radicalization must be abolished. Countries must pave a sound environment for citizens and let them not be trained by radical individuals. Furthermore, all supporting elements such as the economic sources should be found out and eradicated.
In brief, only shooting the militant fighters will not be a panacea for the problem, but also the contributing factors are to be combated. Perhaps, one of the reasons behind the constant failure vis-à-vis combating terrorism is ignoring the ground realities.