Demographics of Terrorism: The Marawi Scenario

In 2017 the Philippine city of Marawi was occupied by Islamic State forces for five months, before snail-paced urban warfare against the Armed Forces of the Philippines followed. Marawi city is situated in the Province of Lanao del Sur, hosting a majority of Muslims which belongs to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, on the Mindanao archipelago in the Philippines. A similar occurrence could manifest within the no go zone ghettos of major European capitals inhabited by an infestation of Africans along with a conglomerate of non-white Muslims.

Infamous for being the haven of undesirables, it was to no great surprise that militants would utilize Marawi’s bunker-like housing, cellars for the concealment and storage of weapons or contraband before barricading narrow streets to stall any advance of the Philippine Army. The well-fortified urban setting was an unusual area of defense for the assaulting State Military mostly familiar with jungle warfare. Fanatic practitioners of Islam, the militants generally fought until the very end instead of surrendering. This tragedy in Marawi would not have been possible for that setting had it not been a Muslim majority area. Although there may be ancillary factors such any prevalence of salafists in the area, the terrorism itself needed a base of supporters among the general population. Had they not been Muslims they would have been less likely to martyr themselves so readily. Religious zeal is an excellent source of fanaticism within the Islamic world, it is necessary for persistence in warfare. Secular militants within the Muslim world can only match this determination when they’re dedicating their lives to the ambitions of an iron willed leader’s personality cult.

A future scenario for major western European cities similar to the battle of Marawi is plausible. Areas off-limits to tourists and non-residents deemed as“no-go zones” within the ghettos of Europe are of peak potential to radicalize in times of crisis or upon the arrival of any opportunity that can violently mobilize the minorities. Your community is a reflection of the members within it, a conglomeration of non-whites residing within European cities would only produce a third world society. There is a tipping point of the moment any European city with enough radical Muslims will fall victim to a perpetual state of Islamist terror related violence due to the lack of social ostracism from European society, be it in media or entertainment. Although it is unlikely for entire cities to become occupied by terrorists in Europe, it is possible for sections of historical centers. The countryside would experience a minor presence simply because rural areas of Europe lack the non-white occupation that urban settings have. In the outcome of an Islamist crisis in Europe the militants could face the reality of a famine caused by the blockading of a city either because a state suddenly lacks functioning infrastructure or a lack of aid reaching civilians. However the unacceptable truth of this matter is that regardless of whether the military is able to stabilize the situation by eliminating all of the terrorists, the base of support for terrorism among the minority populace would remain. An ethnic cleansing is unlikely so long as restricted warfare is regulated by international bodies; the actual issue here is how many of these minority rooted insurgencies will occur in a successive fashion and how much history will be destroyed because of the continuous clashes between combatants.

Look no further than the Mujahideen of Afghanistan and later the Taliban for an example of demographics based terrorism. The Soviet backed coup in 1978 that installed the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan disrupted the social order of the nation sparking a reaction among the rural population to maintain their way of life. Prior to communist rule the urban life had been westernized and the rural low culture was Islamist, and where they shared a relatively peaceful coexistence, a violent rural Islamist population was not yet unleashed until the communists sought to forcibly integrate them into a new way of life.The alliance of Mujahideen would prevail over the Soviet occupation in 1989 and later the Soviet installed government in 1992, the Islamic state of Afghanistan was then formed and given international recognition. However there had been conflicting interests among the Pashtun-centric Mujahideen critical of collaboration with foreign governments such as the United States and Islamic State’s democratic republican form of government. Afghanistan descended into civil war from 1992-1996, the Taliban would emerge as the defacto Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996. The UN maintained their recognition of the Islamic State throughout this period, even after the September 11th World Trade Center attacks which were in response to the US support of Israel. Under the justification of

hunting for Osama bin Laden and their aim of defeating Al-Qaeda which was being harbored by the Taliban’s government, the United States would initiate a regime change by supporting the heavily Turkic and Mongol “Northern Alliance” formed after the demise of the previous Islamic State. Within months they had forcibly removed much of the former Taliban territories and instituted a transitional administration or interim government that would lead to the formation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan by 2004. Nearly

20 years have passed since the US intervened; the sons of the Taliban have rejuvenated their movement for the preservation of their way of life and taken up the arms of their fathers. The US remains in Afghanistan as a foreign policy mistake during a war that had lost its purpose, where the US should have negotiated with a crippled Taliban in 2002 to divorce them from ties to Al-Qaeda, they have instead decided to militarily enforce the US installed government against the impending tactical victory from the Taliban. Another American ambition in the region is working against the development of a new Chinese “silk road”.

Additional examples of demographics based terrorism are the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque for Homeland and Liberty), the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and organized criminal organizations throughout Italy, predominantly in the South. The existence of an unleashed mafia in Italy is the result of rapidly replacing the millennia long social structure with a foreign system of governance resulting in a power vacuum. The concept of demographics based terrorism is to dispel the theory that the average terrorist is an extreme case of a mentally unstable individual that manifested from the ether to destroy or hate freedom and democracy.