The conventional, if less than brilliant, strategy of the jihadis (in Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc), is to cause collapse of the state, with the idea that they themselves can fill the vacuum with a kind of improvised Shari’ah-based system. Basically, erase the existing order, and create a new one.
Aside from being unrealistically simplistic, it is worth noting that this strategy regards the shedding of Muslim blood as a necessary sacrifice for the establishment of an Islamic system.
If Muslims must suffer, if they must even be slaughtered indiscriminately, in order to bring about the collapse of the state, well, we are supposed to accept that this is a price worth paying. A price to be paid based on a promise that this suffering, slaughter, and social collapse, will ultimately result in a bright new era of Islamic governance.
In my opinion, the suffering, slaughter, and social collapse will ultimately result in suffering, slaughter, and social collapse.
As I have written several times before, at least one reason we should be skeptical about this promise is that those who advocate this strategy offer no policy vision for how their “Islamic” system will practically address the socioeconomic issues that impact all of our lives.
For example, how would you structurally change the Yemeni economy to liberate it from debt and predatory foreign energy companies? How would you respond to the abysmal statistics in Yemen regarding per capita income, access to water, education, and so on?
When someone comes to burn down your hut, you have every right to doubt him when he tells you he is doing it so he can build you a mansion.