Islamic State of the nation

Independent

30 Jan, 2015 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Sajida al-Rishawi has been detained in Jordan for nine years over a 2005 bomb attack in Amman. Photo / AP

Isis’ call for a prisoner swap is more about recognition than the release of a failed suicide bomber

However tragic the ending, the weird and unprecedented prisoner swap - of a failed suicide bomber, an air force pilot and a journalist - has only one purpose for Isis: recognition that its Islamic State exists and that foreign nations acknowledge its power.

You only had to listen to the number of journalists talking in recent days about "the Islamic State" - without the usual "so-called"and "self-styled" in front of it - to realise we are already, with scarcely a thought for the consequences, accepting the Caliphate as a viable, if illegitimate, nation.

Forget the original demand for cash - Isis is funnelling the stuff in from its friends in the Arab Gulf - because a Jordanian king and a Japanese deputy foreign minister are more valuable than a billion dollars. By agreeing to negotiate over hostages, in however confusing a fashion, they have given the Islamic State their own imprimatur.

Last year, the State introduced its own currency. Now the State talks to other sovereign nations, albeit through intermediaries.

Soon, no doubt, we can expect Isis to have that other necessary accoutrement of modern statehood: an airline. Then it only has to wait for the West to identify the "moderates" in the Islamic State - and I suppose we'll all be able to go and chat to Caliph al-Baghdadi himself.

Of course, there's a Jordanian side to all this. King Abdullah's Sunni Muslim subjects have never been very enthusiastic about signing up to the West's war on the Sunni Muslim Islamic State, and many Jordanians - especially the Palestinian majority of the country - see no reason why Jordan's military should be trying to destroy Isis' occupation of parts of Syria and Iraq when another foreign occupation exists rather closer to Amman. When Muath al-Kasaesbeh's own father appealed to the Islamic State to free his son - another gift of recognition to Isis - the King was in no position to turn him down. The King of Jordan's duty to protect his people may be more robustly carried out than that of Western prime ministers and presidents towards their citizens, but it is real nonetheless.

Besides, almost every Western nation has made contact, however tenuously, with the Islamic State.

The British, according to Arab officials who should know, have in the past sent messages to Isis members in Raqqa through an Iraqi intermediary. The French, too. Saying that you "don't do business with terrorists" or that you "don't reward terrorists" is nonsense.

Israel has uttered these words a thousand times yet it has released literally thousands of prisoners in return for captured or dead Israeli soldiers.

But sovereign territory means a lot in politics; that's why the Islamic State wants to free a suicide bomber who was not only a member of its (supposed) enemy, al-Qaeda, and not only a failure - her husband blew himself up and killed 60 innocents when she did not do so - but a woman as well!

- Independent

Saudi and Isis approach to justice similar

Following the lashing in Saudi Arabia of blogger Raif Badawi and leaked footage that showed the public execution of a woman accused of beating her daughter, the kingdom's harsh interpretation of Sharia law and its use of capital punishment have come under international scrutiny.

For many, the Saudi justice system sounds not unlike that of Isis, the extremist Islamist group also known as Islamic State, which has struck fear in much of the Middle East.

This week, Middle East Eye, a website that focuses on news from the region and is frequently critical of Saudi Arabia, contrasted a set of legal punishments recently announced by Isis with the corresponding punishments in Saudi Arabia.

While Saudi Arabia isn't particularly forthcoming about its use of capital punishment (and Middle East Eye doesn't cite its source) and accurate information from within Isis' self-proclaimed caliphate is hard to ascertain, information from news sources and human rights organisations suggest the chart is at least broadly accurate.

One key difference between Isis and Saudi Arabia, of course, is that the latter is a key United States ally in the region - and a member of the US-led coalition fighting Isis.

Some experts argue that the fundamentalist brand of Islam practised by both has theological links, however, and Riyadh's recent crackdown has been interpreted as an act of appeasement for Saudi hardliners.

Saudi Arabia's own concern about Isis is likely genuine (plans to build an enormous wall along its border with Iraq are a good sign of that), but for many in the West, the extremist group's rise is also bringing with it a renewed scepticism about American allies in the region.

- Washington Post