Checkmating Islamists in Iraq

It's time for India and other democracies to get serious about checkmating Islamists in Iraq.

By JAGDISH N SINGH
School students pray for the Indian citizens kidnapped in Iraq, at a school in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad June 20, 2014. India has learned the location of 40 of its citizens kidnapped in Iraq by suspected Islamist militants and believes they are being held captive with workers of other nat (photo credit: REUTERS/AMIT DAVE)
School students pray for the Indian citizens kidnapped in Iraq, at a school in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad June 20, 2014. India has learned the location of 40 of its citizens kidnapped in Iraq by suspected Islamist militants and believes they are being held captive with workers of other nat
(photo credit: REUTERS/AMIT DAVE)
The Narendra Modi government deserves applause for its success in safely bringing home its nationals, including 46 nurses, who were stranded in the non-conflict zone of Iraq. However, its mission is far from complete. There are many more Indians still in the strife-torn Iraq. New Delhi has still little news about the 39 Indians, most of whom belong to the Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh regions, held in Iraq.
Recently, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj assured their relatives the necessary steps are being done to end their ordeals. They all have to be protected and brought back home safe. Foreign Minister Swaraj needs to activate all her instruments of diplomacy further and have all dimensions of the Iraq crisis adequately taken care of. New Delhi should consider contributing to the emergence of a friendly regime in Baghdad, which would ensure an uninterrupted flow of its oil to India from the areas controlled by the Kurds and the Shias.
The new Islamist group poses a great threat to the entire civilized world in general and liberal democracies in particular. Sharing its ideology in common with that of al-Qaida, the Taliban and other Wahabist Islamist outfits, ISIS preaches hatred and violence against whoever does not subscribe to its radical theological version. Appearing for the first time in a video on July 5, the new self-styled Caliph Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has recently ordered Muslims to obey him in his call for a ‘global jihad.’
Earlier, his self-styled commander Ibrahim Awwad al-Badri vowed war against democratic India (and others.) This demands all democracies get really serious about checkmating these Islamists. So far they have hardly been focused in their efforts.
In order to accomplish all of its foreign policy objectives in Iraq today New Delhi should focus on checkmating the march of the recently declared Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) or Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) headed by Baghdadi. 
Washington has provided Iraq weapons and equipment, advisers and special forces operatives, aerial assets and a naval carrier task force in the region in the recent past. Simultaneously, Washington has supplied weapons and equipment to the Sunni rebels fighting the Assad regime in Damascus. It is believed that the Central Intelligence Agency- equipped with inputs also from MI6, Mossad, DGSE and others- was against this contradictory approach, for there was a strong possibility such weapons might be passed on to the Sunni ISIS cadres. But Washington has overlooked it.
Besides, some democracies have recently endorsed Hamas participation in the Palestine's so-called government. Earlier, they backed the Muslim Brotherhood led by Mohammad Morsi in Egypt. The acceptance of such notorious organizations would not but embolden the violent Islamists in the region. Also, while stalling the march of the ISIS, the democracies would need to be cautious in their support to the current dispensation in Baghdad.
After the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Baghdad has needed a pluralist democracy to flourish in the country. This has completely been missing. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has never really cared to foster a lasting national reconciliation in the country. He has instead chosen to marginalize Iraq’s Sunnis.
His regime has not been good for Christians either in the country. Approximately two thirds of its Christian minority are said to have fled Iraq since 2003. It is time the democracies did everything within their reach to counter the growing influence of both Wahabi and Khomenist orders and foster democracy and development in the region. Experience shows neither has been friendly to its minorities.
Like Jews, the Kurds have suffered immensely at the hands of both Islamist brands. Christians in Syria today may appear to be supportive of the Bashar regime. But that is just for lack of a better alternative. In the first few months of the recent protest movement, many Christians had joined their neighbors to demonstrate their support for democratic reforms. They returned back only when the movement took on a Sunni Islamist character.
The author is a senior Indian journalist based in New Delhi.