Will Blood Ever Dry? ISIS and the Arab World

In general, historians consider the twentieth century the bloodiest in the entire known human history, given that violence in its multiple forms has been with us since the beginning of humanity. But post-industrial technologies, mobility, preening eyes and ears, and certainly the most horrendous weapons, coupled with an unrestrained self-righteousness, have made it possible to kill much more, compared with our bow-carrying, or gun-thumping forefathers. The current century already seems to be vying with its immediate predecessor if one looks at the scale of killings, massive dislocation of people and unhindered destruction of the ecologies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which happen to be Muslim majority regions. Violence, often considered an antithesis or civility, is not confined to any particular community, creed, country, class or culture, yet the recent collective violence of huge proportions has often been committed by some of the most cultured societies. Inquisitions, expulsions, slavery, elimination of indigenous populations, the Holocaust, global wars and ethnic cleansing, besides punishing larger communities for the crimes of a few, are some glaring examples of this era, in which ironically Europe (including Russia) has been the power engine of this crusading culture. While....