In the past year, ISIS has murdered thousands of people, destroyed ancient ruins, bombed mosques and churches alike, instituted organized and theologically-ordained sex slavery, and has absorbed an additional 30,000 volunteers from the international community. How is ISIS continuing to rally support despite the atrocities that they have committed? While ISIS is a carnage-fueled terrorism epidemic the likes of which history has never seen before, the world of the ancients can provide us with some insight.
An estimated 30,000 volunteers have entered Syria over the course of the past twelve months with intent to join the malice and destruction of ISIS, including 250 American, 500 French, and 750 British citizens. Unfortunately, this is double the number of recruits that ISIS managed to muster during the year before. The number of countries from which ISIS draws its recruits has also increased, from 80 countries last year to 100 as of 2015.
The international community is desperately trying to combat the influx of ISIS recruits, but with mixed success. For instance, France has passed a law which allows the government to detain anyone who is suspected of intent to join ISIS, and countries such as Germany, Tunisia, and Morocco have passed laws which criminalize the support of terrorist groups. Yet only 5 of the 21 countries deemed as “high priority” in terms of the apparent need to identify and detain ISIS recruits have the required technology and laws to do so.
According to a report by the House Homeland Security Committee, “Foreign partners are still sharing information about terrorist suspects in a manner which is ad hoc, intermittent, and often incomplete. There is currently no comprehensive global database of foreign fighter names. Instead, countries including the U.S. rely on a weak, patchwork system for swapping individual extremist identities.”
ISIS constitutes an obvious threat with a significantly less obvious solution. Can history help us out here? While fortunately there are not many terrorist threats in ancient history that compare to that of ISIS’ advance through Southwest Asia, we can still draw certain parallels.
In 87 B.C.E., following the Roman Social War in which Rome and its Italian allies fought for control of the Italian peninsula, Rome was divided by the Optimates, who sought to limit the power of the plebs (that’s you and me), and the Populares, who sought to increase the say of the plebs. When violence finally broke out between these two factions, one member of the Populares, Quintus Sertorius, then proconsul, took matters into his own hands.
After being driven from Spain into Africa by Optimatian forces, Sertorius mounted a campaign in the province of Mauretania (modern day Morocco), freeing the Mauri from the oppressive rule of the Optimates. With both his forces and morale boosted by the success of his African campaign, Sertorius returned to Hispania (modern day Spain) where the Lusitanian tribes who had suffered under Roman rule welcomed him with open arms. At this time, the Populares regime in Rome had fallen, making Sertorius an enemy of the state.
Sertorius assumed supreme command over the Lusitani, however, and mounted a massive campaign against his fatherland, Rome. His forces were bolstered by the Lusitani, Roman deserters, freed and escaped slaves, pirates, and other tribes of Hispania who had suffered under Roman rule.
Sertorius instituted Roman education for everyone in his armies, promised plunder and victory, and preached religious tolerance among his diverse subjects.
You might be wondering, “Gee, this Sertorius guy who wanted to expand my rights sounds super cool, but he hasn’t bombed a mosque or instituted organized sexual slavery. Where’s the connection?”
Sertorius and ISIS make many of the same promises. This Roman general recruited everyone who had an issue with Rome with the promise of plunder, acceptance, and honor – even though it was particularly anti-Roman to bring violence against Rome. There is no hypocrisy so poignant that it cannot be obscured with money. In the same way, ISIS is promising the begrudged youth of Southwest Asia and the entire international community money, fame, and women – all under the guise of an honorable cause. While Sertorius actually utilized his cause to unite the oppressed, however, ISIS uses its cause to further oppress. Who, when properly uninformed, can resist such a call – especially when the cause seems so successful?
Fortunately, ISIS, much like Sertorius, will be stopped as long as there are people who stand up against injustice. As Americans and citizens of the world, I hope we stand together.
Lee Shaw is a current BIC sophomore majoring in professional writing and the current editor of the QuickBIC.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? All are welcome! Email me at Lee_Shaw@baylor.edu
Further reading on the Quintus Sertorius:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sertorius*.html
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romanss/a/030211-Bingley-Quintus-Sertorius.htm
Further reading on ISIS Recruitment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html