The Virtue of ISIS

The world today seems to be seized with the menacing events taking place in the Middle East in the name of ISIS. Unfortunately, this seems another example how misinformed politicians and military men have botched up and made a complete mess of a noble idea.

The movement called ISIS, as the very name Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seems to have started to unite Iraq and Syria into a single Islamic Republic. Historically they have been parts of a greater Islamic empire and most of the troubles of the people of both countries seem to have started after their separation, specially the religious sectarian persecution.

Let us see what will be religious distribution of a united ISIS Republic. The table below gives a heartening picture:

Country	Total Million	Sunni %	Shia  %	Christian %	Other  %	Sunny Million	Shia  Million	Christian Million	Other Million
Syria	18	74	12	10	4	13.32	2.16	1.8	0.72
Iraq	36	33	62	4	1	11.88	22.32	1.44	0.36
Total	54	47	45	6	2	25.2	24.48	3.24	1.08

Form the above table it is obvious that the union of Iraq and Syria will constitute a viable country with nearly equal populations of Shias and Sunnis, while the 8% minorities will hold the balance of power. It would be a workable democracy with little chance of anyone being persecuted on religious grounds.

It would be a good idea if the demonization of ISIS and the inhuman military activities are stopped and diplomatic efforts are made to bring the leaders of Iraq, Syria and the ISIS to form a Democratic Islamic State. The name and the capital will indeed be issues that can be resolved by decent negotiations.

The United Nations has a good opportunity to do at least once what it was created for.