Lee Henry D.

Castro NGEC0723
BSABE-2B May 03, 2020

The Rise of Isis: A Reflection Paper

In partial fulfillment of our course in Contemporary World, we were asked to watch a

documentary about the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, better known as ISIS. During the
2010’s, we familiarized ourselves to the horrific and gruesome murders and other act of terrors
brought upon by this group.

There is no argument that would deny that ISIS is the face of terrorism today. However,
after I watched the documentary “The Rise of Isis”, I’ve understand how they come into being
one of the most horrifying groups of our decade.

Ascending from what remains from the fall of Al-Qaeda, another terrorist group based on
the Middle-East, the Isis consists of a large number of Sunni Muslims—an Islam denomination
that contradicts the belief of another denomination, the Shia. After 8 years of war in Iraq with the
United States of America, the American Troop left Iraq in 2011. However, right after they left,
accusations of terrorist act quickly arise in Baghdad implicating that the current Vice Prime
Minister of Iraq, Tariq al-Hashimi is behind a plot of attack to Shia Muslim targets.

In response, the Prime Minister of Iraq which is also a devoted Shia, Nouri al-Maliki,
goes into warpath killing and imprisoning thousands of Sunni Muslims, innocent or not. It went
on for a long time. It was a relentless secularization and abuse towards the Sunni. To add insult
on the injury, the Shia praised Maliki for what he was doing and encouraged him to do more.
Without the US troops to go in his way, he has all the power to continue—and that, he did

Later, feeling too much oppressed, some Sunni descendants of the former Al-Qaeda
decided that it is time to fight back. After successfully seizing Syria, the rise of ISIS began. They
bombed cities and breached prisons to free the people that are in there swelling up their numbers
as they did until the military force of Iraq cannot contain them. What they wanted is not to
terrorize in the first place, they wanted to be respected with their beliefs and to have their rights.
But, because of the abuse that they receive from the Iraqi Administration, they became fierce and
unforgiving.

Although I do not support the methods enforced by ISIS, I couldn’t help but to think that
they are not purely driven of evil motives. They were a minority and they were oppressed out of
their country. Their people were killed including children and women and they knew they had to
stand up. There were even moments were ISIS would declare ceasefire in order to conduct a
peaceful negotiations and argumentations, but as soon as they do they were attacked by the
military.
 Today, we always paint ISIS as an evil and terrifying active organization, and I don’t
disagree. What they did was unacceptable and beyond reasonable. But, if we take the time to
examine the cause, we can see that the opposition has also done them wrong.

Humans always have the tendency to be violent, much more if given the chance to be. If
they are in an oppressive, abusing and mentally challenging state, that could bring out the violent
man within them. The ISIS’s mentality was no different from that of ours when we broke
through the hands of the Spanish, or the French when they got tired of the church having a say in
the state’s affair. However, they took things in a way more viscous approach and that is
something unforgivable.

All in all, as my conclusion, I want to say that this type of violence displayed by the ISIS
can happen again. It might be another religious group, or political organization or a business
entity. Any other way, there is only one thing we can do to prevent it, and that is to respect each
other’s belief and practices and consider the minority an integral part of state. After all, at the
end of the day, we are all different and that diversity within us is what keeps the society in
balance.