Source: The Express Tribune

By Shahid Javed Burki, who is a former caretaker finance minister and served as vice-president at the World Bank

According to the group, the ideology it is pursuing would take its followers back to the early days of Islam. The style of governance was to be shaped according to what the group believes are the teachings of Islam. The group’s ambition is to bring under its sway all those around the world who follow the Islamic faith. Their number is estimated at 1.6 billion. There is not a single country among the almost 200 members of the United Nations that does not have a Muslim presence.

The geographic state from which the Islamic State would spread out to the rest of the world is in Iraq and Syria. This area had become susceptible for a move in this direction as a result of an almost unrelenting unfolding of history. The first two decades of the 20^thcentury saw the collapse of the Ottoman Empire that had governed most of the Muslim world for several centuries. The dissolution of the Empire led to a period that lasted for three quarters of a century when the European powers colonised a good part of the globe. They arbitrarily drew dividing lines on the world map and carved out artificial states not founded on the concept of defined nations. Those boundaries are now under attack and may not survive into the future.

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