Jordan Bolker
Staff Writer
As an associate professor of political science, it’s Dr. William Muck’s main priority to inform and teach his students about international news and the effect it has in the United States. In his main expertise in international relations, Muck sat down with The Chronicle and talked about the world’s involvement with the Islamic organization ISIS. His goal as a professor is to raise awareness of ISIS to the students and why international conflict is occurring.
1. What is ISIS? How was this group formed?
ISIS is an organization that stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that’s also known as ISIL to others. It was founded in Iraq but now it’s adapting a bit to Syria. What people mistook a lot is that ISIS is distinct from al Qaeda; it’s more local than international. Its primary goal is to form a true Islamic, religious and fundamentalist state through the Sunni religion. It started out as a small group but now they have tens of thousands of soldiers that are part of this. I would estimate that there are between 10,000-40,000 soldiers now. They recruit well and they have deep pockets and they’re very well funded and have a good supply of resources. They’re also very tech-savvy because they stretch all across the international press depending on their audience. So, if they were trying to reach out to the western part of the Middle East, then they would have their own separate Twitter account for those kinds of people.
2. What effect does ISIS have on the United States? Why should we be involved in something that is happening in just the Middle East?
One of the big reasons is Iraq. They’ve spent money, blood and treasure in order to topple regimes and our biggest fear is that ISIS is going to topple the Iraq and Syrian governments. Another reason is that there is less stability in the Middle East with countries like Jordan and Lebanon that are smaller and are easier to take over. This can lead to ISIS not having any reason to stretch out further to other parts of the world, including the United States. We’re now involved with dropping bombs in the Middle East, so we could have some threat. However, this may not be the case since ISIS has more of a local approach.
3. Why do you think the concept of religion has become a cause for going to war?
Religion is such a powerful factor that draws lines between groups of people. For example, with ISIS, the lines are between the Sunni v. Shia religions and Islam v. the West. The United States doesn’t fully understand sometimes how important religion is in fighting against others. But it’s also hard not to see its importance if you live in a country like Iraq. If you live in an Islamic country and you were to view religion with the involvement of the United States, you would think it’s Christians v. Muslims, even though the United States doesn’t see it as a religious conflict. There’s a lot of misunderstanding with that.
4. Why do you think ISIS has such a strong way of being able to interest and recruit people from all over the world, including the U.S.?
There is such a powerful appeal to extremism that makes it so attractive. There are a lot of ties with globalization in which there are many benefits with also a lot of sufferings and unrest. We constantly struggle to find identity in a complex world and a group like ISIS seems to give that kind of a purpose. They fill that void of having a voice in the government that gives people meaning. It somehow creates and ethical identity that draws people in. There’s something missing that ISIS seems to be providing to giving people some kind of identity with a common purpose. Will extremism continue to work this way? I don’t know. But everyone in the world has to benefit somehow for it to be continuous.
