Radicalism, Refugees, and Resistance

The Contemporary World and Ongoing Challenges HIST 1301 | History Radicalism, Refugees, and Resistance The United States concluded its combat military departure from Iraq in 2011, eight long years after the war. But with the advent of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a radical and violent Islamic organisation also known as the Islamic State, hopes for long-lasting peace in Iraq were shattered. ISIL, which was founded in 1999, opposed the coalition led by the United States when it invaded Iraq in 2003. It assaulted and pushed out Iraqi security forces from many towns in 2014, including Mosul, Ramadi, and Fallujah. It also massacred hundreds of Yazidi minority members in the Sinjar province of Iraq. The founders of ISIL declared that they were in charge of a brand-new Islamic state called the caliphate, which would govern over all Muslims both politically and religiously and be headed by a figurehead who claimed to be Muhammad's successor. The majority of Muslims worldwide disagree with this assertion. In response, the Iraqi government requested that a military coalition headed by the United States return to Iraq. Simultaneously, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the equivalent of ISIL in Syria, fought the Syrian government as well as other non-fundamentalist organisations who shared the goal of deposing Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad. The coalition commanded by the United States, which went back to Iraq to combat the Islamic State, also made an intervention in Syria. 2015 saw a surge of refugees travelling across the Mediterranean to Europe as a result of unrest in Syria and Iraq. More were running from acts of genocide in Sudan's Darfur area, and many more were trying to get away from impoverished and collapsing regimes in various regions of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Many of these refugees and economic migrants were prepared to put their lives in danger in order to reach their belief that the developed West, especially Germany, Sweden, Britain, France, and the United States, would provide them a better and safer existence. When these groups arrived, they received different reactions. Some said that the migrants should be welcomed with open arms since they had endured trauma, while others countered that they were escaping situations beyond the control of the host nation and would bring about excessive cultural and theological changes. For instance, a lot of Europeans were afraid that immigrants from Islamic nations would not uphold the ideals of the mostly secular European countries where they resided. Many others think that Muslims condone or promote acts of terrorism or political extremism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "We can do this!" in response to the growing refugee crisis and pledged that her country will accept 800,000 migrants in 2015. Merkel's offer gave some people hope, but others thought it was ill-advised across Europe. They pointed out that given Germany was a member of the EU, sending migrants there was equivalent to bringing them into any other EU member state. There was resistance even within Germany. Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA), a German organisation founded in 2014, started holding weekly marches in places like Dresden and said that allowing the Islamic world to enter Europe would mean the continent's doom. Members of PEGIDA openly oppose the presence of Islamic culture and religion in Germany, despite the organization's stated policy of not being completely against refugees. PEGIDA is only one of several ultranationalist groups that advocate for a radical kind of nationalism and frequently work towards the establishment of homelands with a uniform ethnic makeup. Other examples include the Identitarian Movement in Austria, the English Defence League in Britain, and Golden Dawn in Greece. These groups oppose immigration from outside of Europe, support the creation of ethnically based citizenship, and generally support more conservative social policies. Over the past few decades, xenophobic political movement has returned to other continents outside Europe. Nippon Kaigi, or the "Japan Conference," is an ultranationalist group in Japan that was established in 1997 and promotes a strong monarchy, a rigidly nationalist educational system, and a favourable view of Japan's imperial past. Established in 2006, the Nationalist Front of Mexico promotes a neofascist worldview and a turn away from globalisation. Similar ideals are promoted in the US by organisations including the National Justice Party, Patriot Front, American Freedom Party, and American Identity Movement. These organisations are particularly interested in stopping immigration from Latin America to the United States. They support a mostly White and European culture in the United States and are typically neofascist in nature.