The medieval public beheading of an American journalist by an apparently British jihadist has reignited a sense of indignation about the need to resolve the many pressing problems of the Middle East. These include but are not limited to the Israel-Palestine conflict, the civil war in Syria, the long-standing Shia-Sunni feud, and the rise and rise of extreme Islam with its manifestation of terrorism.

The wider world looks on with a hand-wringing ‘do something’ mentality. But what? The United Nations is ineffective and needs reform, which is an issue itself. The United States, with support from only a few of its allies, is prepared to drop bombs on the Islamic State of Iraq and its caliphate in the heart of the region, but, given its unhappy history in going to war against the dictator Saddam Hussein, has ruled out sending in ground troops.

There is ample evidence that most Muslims are as horrified as everyone else by the carnage they see on their television screens. This was a point strongly made by Australia’s director-general of intelligence, David Irvine, at an AIIA NSW meeting a week ago, when he pleaded with Australians not to engage in a backlash against the Muslim community because of extremism of the minority. (Remember, in Australia, ASIO puts the number posing a real threat here as 150)

The question remains, however: Why are Arab governments not doing more to contain the jihadist threat within their own region? This is particularly true of the super-rich states of the Persian Gulf. Some of them, notably Dubai, with its gleaming towers, nightclubs, sophisticated life-style, emancipated women, and gambling tables are anathema to and ultimately threatened by the spreading Islamic State caliphate.

But these Gulf states, many of them armed to the teeth, decline to act, some muttering about “western inaction”. The Doha-funded Al Jazeera network sees it in the context of a “challenge to the US”. A perceptive article on this question by Shashank Joshi, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, has just been published in the Financial Times. He points out that the Gulf Co-operation Council countries possess more than 600 combat-capable aircraft. Add Jordan, Turkey and Egypt and you have 1000 more. And that is without the huge defence forces of predominantly Muslim countries further away – but nearer than us – like Indonesia and Malaysia.

In his article, Joshi seeks to explain why the Arab world is reluctant to contain the enemy within, and urges the west to “first understand three Arab fears”, and then help it overcome them.

In a different way, the New York Times adopts this theme in an editorial:

“Those paying the biggest price for the barbarism of Islamic extremists are Muslims. That’s why (President) Obama was correct to argue that “from governments and peoples across the Middle East, there has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so that it does not spread.”

 

All Muslim-majority countries should see ISIS, a former al Qaeda affiliate, as a threat and their citizens should be demanding action. But they are mired in their own petty competitions and Sunni-Shiite religious debates and many have their own sordid relations with extremists of one kind or another. For instance, ISIS has gotten financing from donors in Kuwait and Qatar, among other places. Saudi Arabia funnelled weapons to Syrian rebels and didn’t care if they went to ISIS. Turkey allowed ISIS fighters and weapons to flow across porous borders.

 

Outside the west, it is hard to find much evidence in the opinion pages of interest in this key issue. The Russian press is still preoccupied with Ukraine. The French are following the romances of their president, and a stumbling economy. The Indian newspapers seem more focused on their new government and on Pakistan. China has other preoccupations, though Beijing has tried to find a way through the Israel-Palestine dispute, but it has been left to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post to urge China to step in where the UN – and others – has failed.

 

The Japan Times published an article by a former UK ambassador to Tokyo pointing out one core problem – that it is doubtful if Iraq can survive as a unitary sovereign state within its present borders. But, as Joshi suggests, he criticises that the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, for reportedly supporting the Sunni jihadists, are “playing with fire”. And, after a wide ranging review of expanding terrorist threats, he asks,” Can we stand back and watch the IS commit genocide?”

The BBC raises another issue in the establishment of the Islamic State – the degree to which it has successfully used the social media to spread its message. It is, says the BBC’s technology reporter Steve Lee, “using the platform with a sophistication never before witnessed”.