'Quraishi's killing will not likely bring about ISIS demise'
US President Joe Biden was keen to stress that the killing of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi would spell the end of terrorist threats.
However,
this raises questions about whether the killing of terror leaders had led to
the destruction of their organizations at the end of the day.
To what
extent do politics affect the organizational capabilities of such
organizations?
On February
3, President Biden announced the killing of the ISIS caliph in a US military
operation.
Al-Quraishi
was asked to surrender, but he chose to blow himself up, together with his
family members by detonating an explosive belt he wore.
Organizational
controversy
The killing
of the leader of the ISIS leader has re-ignited confusion about the impact of
the killing of terror leaders on their future.
This is
especially true in the light of Biden's keenness to expect the demise of ISIS
after the killing of its leader.
The
methodology of the fundamentalist groups is derived from special
interpretations of Islamic law texts. This methodology considers death as an
inevitable matter that everyone will be exposed to.
These groups
also believe in martyrdom for the sake of God. They believe their leaders blow themselves
up to avoid arrest or captivity.
This means
that the killing of terror leaders does not affect the prospects of their
organizations.
There are
many instances in history showing that terrorist organizations do not die after
the death or killing of their leaders.
Nonetheless,
the killing of terror leaders sometimes affects the operational capabilities of
their organizations on the ground, depending on the vision of the new leaders
of these organizations.
Iraqi
researcher, Hesham al-Ali said ISIS adopts a decentralized cluster leadership
and administrative system.
"This
system allows leaders from the general command to have full powers over the
work and the planning of the organization," he told The Reference.
"This
means that it is highly unlikely that ISIS will be affected by the killing of al-Quraishi,"
he added.
