His Majesty King Abdullah drew a distinction between Daesh and khawarej (outlaws of Islam), making clear that the former, called by most of the West ISIS in Syria and Iraq, “can be defeated fairly quickly”, but the latter, “what I call the third world war by other means, is a generational one”.

The King thus emphasised his former thoughts on the issue; hopefully the American public will now be better informed, as will the rest of the world, which needs to realise that the military aspect is important for the short term, as it fights Daesh as a group entrenched in Syria and Iraq, but that the ideology that spawned it and its other reincarnations in many other parts of the world needs to be fought over a longer time, over generations, as the Monarch said, and is going to take resolve, resources and global cooperation and synchronisation.

Speaking during an interview conducted last week by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, during his working visit to Washington, the King said that the bigger and longer war against khawarej, spread from the Philippines to Africa, the Middle East and much of the rest of the world, is bigger in scope and magnitude, and involves tackling education and the ideology of large masses of people whose ignorance and marginalisation makes them easy prey of radical groups bent on shaping the world according to their distorted interpretation of religion.

It is a battle against terrorism and radicalism that, while needing the entire world to contribute, it is, ultimately, an effort that has to be spearheaded by Muslims, as it is, first and foremost, a Muslim challenge and danger.

The onus of responsibility must be borne by the Muslims themselves since the khawarej have become the ultimate enemy of Islam.

And as the King reminded his audience, the battle against these outlaws is a long-term effort; but it should also entail urgent reformation within the ranks of the affected Muslims.

The most pernicious enemy to the Muslim world and to world order has thus been clearly pointed out by the King.

Now it is the collective responsibility of the international community to begin a meaningful and effective effort to root this evil before it contaminates much of the globe

.