Mediterranean: Will it become the Inland Sea of the Islamic State?

[China Times]

■ Ma Xiaolin

The Mediterranean Sea, which connects the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, has never been the inland sea of the Islamic world, but now there are fears that history will be rewritten, due to the rapid rise of the Islamic State and its expansion on all sides. Boko Haram, a violent terrorist group in Nigeria, announced on March 7 that it would pledge allegiance to the Islamic State, which has carved up the country in Syria and Iraq, submit to its so-called political and religious leaders, and "honor or disgrace." This latest development is reminiscent of the Islamic State's emergence as a transcontinental force.

According to AFP, BBC and other media reports, the leader of "Boko Haram", Abu Bakr Al-Shekao, posted an audio through his "Twitter" account, saying, "We owe allegiance to the Muslim caliph Ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim Hosseini Gulehih." The owner of this long list of names, Guleshi, refers to the leader of the Islamic State, known as Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who shows that he is a descendant of the ancient Meccan nobleman of the Arabian Peninsula, that is, a descendant of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, thus proving his pure blood and long history as a Muslim political and religious leader. Analysts believe that this is mostly a false statement of the Iraqi Baghdadi. Even so, the uncultured but invincible Leaders of Boko Haram believed it and willingly threw themselves into their lot. Shekao's audio files are broadcast in Arabic with English and French subtitles. Its authenticity is difficult to test, but Western intelligence agencies have judged that the owner of the audio is indeed Xie Kao.

If the Islamic State responds positively, and if the islamic State responds positively, and the various branches of the organization, which are already active in North Africa, a "caliphate" of unprecedented scale and across two continents has emerged, at least it has been linked on the map, which will inevitably have a subversive impact on the existing political order and security system in West Asia and Africa.

Boko Haram has been committing crimes in Nigeria for 11 years, its purpose is to oppose Westernization, secularization and modernization, believing that the Western world has widely spread corrupt and dirty non-Islamic cultures in these three ways, deconstructing sacred and pure Islamic civilization, so that it has so far caused 13,000 deaths and expanded its activities beyond its borders to become the most brutal terrorist organization in Black Africa.

Boko Haram was once considered loyal to al-Qaida. However, since the Islamic State announced last year that it had broken off diplomatic relations with al-Qaeda and established itself as a unifier, Boko Haram has publicly declared itself an integral part of the "Caliphate", but it is not clear whether this "Caliphate" is "Islamic State". Shekao's loyalty this time shows that the group has openly merged with the Islamic State as its base in black Africa.

Some Western analysts believe that the Islamic State may not laugh at the gift, because the group is a predominantly Arab and Sunni Muslim group that may look down on and reject its black African counterparts. Some people also believe that under the difficult situation of joint encirclement and suppression by several African countries, Boko Haram has taken the initiative to submit to the "Islamic State" across continents, perhaps in order to obtain financial or human support. It is not known whether it is boko haram that shows sincerity to move closer to the Islamic State, or whether it is due to the influence or manipulation of the latter, "Boko Haram" has recently strengthened publicity through the Internet and adopted the method of beheading and execution, which is the typical behavior paradigm of the "Islamic State".

Will the Islamic State accept Boko Haram's embrace? Theoretically, it is entirely possible, and it is not the latest franchisee. Since the announcement of the islamic state on June 29 last year, Baghdadi has declared himself the "caliph" of the world's Muslims, calling on all "Jerhad" elements to quickly rally in his kingdom and participate in a holy war against infidels. In fact, the Islamic State did recruit nearly 30,000 followers from more than 80 countries around the world, including citizens of more than 5,000 Western countries.

The Islamic State not only declared a statehood, but also established the capital of Raqqa in central Syria and announced a vast map of future control. The group reportedly claimed to conquer all of southern Europe and the Caucasus in the north, central Africa and India in the south, within five years, larger than the historical Arab and Ottoman Turkish Islamic Empires at their peak, in other words, the Mediterranean Sea had been designated as the inland sea under its control.

However, this expansionary rhapsody is not high or low, and last October, the Pakistani Taliban announced that it would follow the Islamic State as the first "overseas" orchestration. In November, along the eastern, southern, and northern shores of the Mediterranean, terrorist and extremist groups in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, and Algeria switched to the Islamic State. Libyan extremists who control Places such as Delna and Sirte not only announced their pursuit of Baghdadi around the time of the New Year's War, but also brazenly beheaded 21 Egyptian Christian hostages on the Mediterranean coast in mid-February this year, warning Italy and other European countries on the other side of the Mediterranean that they would vow to cross the ocean to Europe.

Baghdadi and his followers, apparently living in old dreams of the glorious days of Islam, aspire to violently rebuild the political system and civilization that has been sealed for millennia. After Muhammad's death, the Muslim community centered on the Arabian Peninsula entered the era of the "Four Caliphs", and in more than 300 years expanded into a super empire that spanned Asia, Africa and Europe, ruling the Iberian Peninsula for about 800 years, and its blade even approached Paris at one point. In 1453, the Ottoman Turks, who had replaced the Arabs in dominating the Islamic world, conquered Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, expanding their power into the Balkans and even besieging Vienna twice. Both Arab Muslims and Turkish Muslims have tried to conquer all of Europe along the northern shores of the Mediterranean, incorporating the Mediterranean in its entirety. It is worth mentioning that the conquest of southwestern Europe by Arab Muslims was accomplished by the passage of the Strait of Gibraltar by the Moors of northwest Africa who converted to Islam. Therefore, the analysis that the Islamic State discriminates against black people and may refuse to merge with Boko Haram is difficult to stand on, both in terms of history and reality.

For the Islamic State, whose ambitions have clearly overshadowed those of their predecessors a thousand years ago, the consolidation of forces to absorb foreign legions such as Boko Haram is clearly in line with its expansion needs and historical logic, and even in line with the traditional concept of "Muslims are brothers". Of course, perhaps the Islamic State still hopes to survive, waiting for Europe to be Islamized decades later, so that its ideal of conquest can be realized in Europe without bloodshed.

Dreams are full, reality is bone. In fact, in a world dominated by powerful secular and modern civilizations, radical and terrorist forces such as the Islamic State can neither be supported by the mainstream forces in the Islamic world, nor can they rewrite the existing map of the Middle East. As a world public enemy and a global public nuisance, what awaits it can only be overthrown, and what is uncertain is probably only time and cost. Therefore, the Mediterranean Sea becoming the inland sea of the "Islamic State" may be a false proposition.

(The author is an expert on international issues and the president of Bo LianHe)