Cover Story: The New Caliphate and Its Implications

The manner in which Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) captured Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq with a population of 1.8 million, and followed it with Tikrit, Tal Afar and vast swaths of territory in North and West of Iraq, has left the global community stunned. The subsequent establishment of an Islamic caliphate less than hundred years after the last one ended in Turkey with the fall of Ottoman Empire is a far reaching development with global implications.
By establishing Islamic caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq and bringing it under their control, ISIL has been blurring national boundaries, which were in any case a legacy of the colonial rule. The outfit has dropped Iraq and Levant from their name, and by retaining just the ‘Islamic State’ and its Shura, has ‘elected’ the elusive Dr Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the jihadist leader of ISIL, as the new caliph. The proclamation of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as Caliph Ibrahim, the caliph of all Muslims, has made him even more powerful than Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The new caliph has also asked Al-Qaeda and other related militant Sunni factions operating in the region to immediately pledge their allegiance to him.

According to reports, many members of Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra front have sworn their allegiance to the new caliph. In days to come many more Islamic outfits across the world might transfer their allegiance and if that happens, it might emerge as an extremely powerful entity at the cost of Al-Qaeda and the Amir-ul-Mumineen (commander of the faithful) Mullah Omar of Taliban.

In view of the recent developments, serious concerns are being raised about the future viability of a unified Iraq. The brutality of ISIL has created awe amongst Iraqis, which is reminiscent of the Mongols of yore, who had ransacked Baghdad almost eight centuries ago. Around 90,000 Iraqi troops are believed to have deserted their posts under the ISIL onslaught. More significantly, its pronouncements, where it has asked its fighters not to yield territory won to Shiites except over their dead bodies, have aggravated the sectarian divide. Its avowed objective of marching on to Baghdad and Shiite holy places of Najaf and Karbala, have raised anxieties of Shias worldwide. It has vast resources with its war booty having been enriched by vast reserves of gold held by various banks in Mosul and cash reserves of around $ 429 million.

Other News:

As the caliphate gets more and more theocratic validation, one would see Sunni youths from across the globe joining in to fight the holy war! Now that its name and objectives are no longer confined to Iraq and Levant, it could spread its influence to Turkey and other parts of West Asia, thereby making the entire region unstable.
Iran, which finds itself hemmed in by an Islamic caliphate with an avowed anti-Shia agenda in the West, and an army of the faithful led by Mullah Omar and his Taliban in the East, is
justifiably concerned with the developments.
This establishment of the caliphate will have far reaching repercussions across the globe. On the economic front there
are concerns about the petroleum prices and its
supply from this tumultuous region. On the theological front, the threat of attacks on shrines has raised the concerns of Shias in South Asia as well. Already, a Pakistani Shia has died defending religious sites in Iraq and, the registration of volunteers to fight in Iraq has been started by some Shia organisations in India. Thousands of Indians have already registered to defend the holy sites. On the other side, members of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are already fighting with ISIL. There have been minor incidents of rioting between the two communities (Shia and Sunnis) in India as well.
This development has grave implications for the geo-politics of not only West Asia, but also or the world at large. Being India’s extended neighborhood with bearing on South Asian politics, India has immediate concerns to deal with this phenomenon.
In this context, Organiser and Panchjanya, two leading national weeklies of Bharat Prakashan (Delhi) Ltd, organised a day long
brainstorming session on July 14, 2014 at Madhya Pradesh Bhawan, Chanakyapuri New Delhi.