68 Nations Meet in Washington, Vow to Wipe Out Islamic State
2017.03.22
Washington
Updated at 5:27 p.m. ET on 2017-03-22
Malaysia and 67 other members of a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State pledged to accelerate collective efforts to crush IS as they ended a one-day meeting in Washington on Wednesday.
During the meeting Malaysia’s foreign minister announced that his country would contribute U.S. $1 million (4.4 million ringgit) in humanitarian assistance to former Islamic State (IS)-held territories in Iraq and Syria.
The one-day conference of foreign ministers was the first high-level meeting of the Global Coalition on the Defeat of ISIS – another acronym for IS – hosted by the Trump administration.
The conference wrapped up with top diplomats from the 68 partner states reiterating their nations “commitment to an integrated, multidimensional, and comprehensive approach to defeat ISIS and its global networks, fully recognizing this will require sustained, focused efforts.”
“We recognize that returning ISIS fighters may pose a threat to their home countries and that we must address the issue by various means that may include reintegration and rehabilitation, as well as monitoring, investigation, and prosecution,” the ministers said in a joint statement.
They said the coalition would also intensify its efforts to confront IS in cyberspace “and reshape the public narrative around ISIS to one of failure,” and that members would “continue their collaboration to discredit ISIS’s propaganda, emphasizing credible, authentic voices that provide alternative narratives to challenge ISIS’s world view.”
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson opened the meeting by vowing that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi would end up like the planners of IS-claimed terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels who were killed by coalition forces.
“It is only a matter of time before Baghdadi himself meets this same fate,” Tillerson said.
‘Ready to share our expertise’
Malaysia and Singapore are the only two Southeast Asian members of the coalition, which was formed in September 2014 under the Obama presidency. Afghanistan is the only coalition member in South Asia.
Announcing Malaysia’s donation for humanitarian assistance, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said, “Malaysia fully supports the global coalition’s call for urgent funding for the newly liberated areas in Iraq and Syria.”
Anifah highlighted Malaysia’s emphasis on understanding, tolerance, mutual respect and inclusiveness in countering the global threat posed by IS.
“These are very noble values that are non-existent in the wayward ideology of Daesh,” Anifah said, referring to IS by another name. “Retelling the narrative of true Islam that embraces these virtues is as vital in countering extremism as it is in putting a stop to the barbarities perpetrated by these misguided people.”
Authorities in Malaysia have warned of a threat posed by the extremist group on its soil, where IS claimed a grenade attack that injured eight people at a nightclub near Kuala Lumpur last year. Since 2013, local police have arrested at least 278 people with suspected IS links, according to government figures.
The Malaysian foreign minister also touted de-radicalization as an indispensable component of Malaysia’s counter-terrorism strategy.
“We subscribe to the belief that those who have been convicted under our terrorism-related laws had been misled into embracing a completely objectionable version of Islam,” Anifah said, according to a copy of his speech, noting that Malaysia had a 97.5 percent success rate in de-radicalization and rehabilitation.
“Malaysia is ready to share our expertise with other countries.”
Counter-messaging centers
A fact-sheet from the coalition states that counter-terrorist messaging is vital to its effort to defeat IS, and such online content is more prevalent as pro-IS content declines.
“This is a terrorist group that is increasingly struggling in the face of an increasingly organized and sophisticated set of initiatives by the coalition,” said the fact-sheet released by the U.S. State Department.
The coalition’s communications working group, led by the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the U.S., convenes more than 30 member countries with media and tech companies to share information and strategies to counter violent extremist messages online and present positive alternative narratives, according to the fact-sheet.
Malaysia, a coalition member since September 2016, has established regional and national counter-messaging centers.
The country is home to an online counter-extremist messaging center overseen by the Royal Malaysia Police and the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism, operated under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with assistance from the U.S. State Department.
A third center is set to open this spring. The King Salman Center for International Peace will take an academic approach to conducting research into and countering ideology spread by IS and other extremist groups.
“We have countered terrorism messaging with creative digital end-products which cover a range of themes that are highly relevant to countering violent extremism,” Anifah said in his remarks.
“These include – from raising awareness among parents of youth that could be vulnerable to radicalization, to attacking the myths of ‘masculinity’ associated with the romanticized notion of jihad – and to using figures from popular culture as well as traditional poetry to satirize and undermine the efforts of Daesh.”
Scale of effort
Along with de-radicalization and counter-messaging efforts, the coalition reported that 33 of the 68 member states had more than 9,000 troops in Iraq and Syria, as part of a military campaign to defeat IS, whose Iraqi and Syrian strongholds are now under siege by opposing forces.
Malaysia is not among countries that have contributed troops to that campaign.
“Coalition operations have liberated 62 percent of the terrain ISIS once controlled in Iraq and 30 percent in Syria, including key cities in both countries. The number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria is at its lowest level since the group declared its ‘caliphate,’ down by more than half since its peak in 2014,” the fact-sheet said.
In addition, coalition members have provided more than $22.2 billion (98.3 billion ringgit) in economic support and humanitarian aid in Iraq and Syria.
“Hard-fought victories in Iraq and Syria have swung the momentum in our coalition’s favor, but we must increase the intensity of our efforts to solidify our gains in the next phase of the counter-ISIS fight,” Tillerson told the conference, which took place at the State Department.
“Degradation of ISIS is not the end goal, we must defeat ISIS,” the chief U.S. diplomat said.