It took a massive Persian invasion under Xerxes I, the king of kings, to unite the squabbling city-states of ancient Greece. At the battle of Tours, Frankish and Germanic tribes came together under Charles Martel to stem the relentless march of the Moors into Europe. History is rife with examples of unruly neighbours joining arms to face a threat greater than themselves. The question is; can the Islamic State’s barbaric blitzkrieg bring the Arab and by extension the Muslim world together like never before?
But what does unity really mean? Muslims around the world have condemned IS; many organizations worldwide, such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Association of Muslim Lawyers have come out publicly calling it the “Un-Islamic State”. Yet we have seen such efforts by groups worldwide to distance themselves from militants, for the sake of their own image, before; Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban were all condemned. Furthermore, such statements rarely translate into real world polices. But the wanton violence of IS has invited disgust against militancy which wasn’t there when it came to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban; who were romanticised by many as just liberators against western oppression. Is this sentiment here to stay? It is too soon to say.
A real change may be seen in the Middle East. The IS threatens not only Iraq, but also Shiite Iran, the Kurds, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States. Despite Mr Obama’s declaration of war against IS, the Western world has little appetite for another conflict. Instead Secretary of State John Kerry is scurrying all over the Middle East to form a coalition that will do the dirty work on the ground while the West rains fire from the skies. For once the region is united in combating IS; but not combating it united, it seems. Iran, which has been fighting IS alone for quite a while now, has been quietly snubbed; the Saudis will bolt if they were included. The Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi forces will be armed, but Turkey, with a large Kurdish population of its own, is dithering. Will ancient feuds be forgotten? For once, one hopes that history repeats itself.