Islam-pol is the acronym of a prospective law enforcement
agency expected to be operational within the countries of Organisation of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The idea of
establishing Islam-pol brought up by President Erdogan at the opening session
of the 13th Islamic Summit of the OIC hold in Istanbul. Erdogan has proposed
Islam-pol as a multinational police organisation amongst the member states of
OIC to fight against international terrorism.
Since Al-Qaida, DAESH and alike terrorist
organisations have become a major threat to Islamic states, creating Islam-pol
or similar organisations in the OIC has been a favourable idea in recent years.
Therefore, Erdogan’s proposition found support from member state
representatives at the summit and the headquarter of the Islam-pol is agreed to
establish in Istanbul. According to the latest news, organisation will be
competent to improve counter-terror cooperation among member states by intelligence
sharing and will provide training programmes towards the law enforcement
agencies of member states.
At the first glance, Erdogan’s proposition
looks very accurate for finding a solution to jihadist terrorism in the Middle
East. However, feasibility of the project is not certain when looking at
regional actor’s counter-terror understandings.
In order to analyse feasibility of the project,
first of all we should focus another international policing project Europol
that inspires Erdogan and his advisors.
The first steps of establishing Europol were
taken in 1993 by the proposition of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Until 1995, Europol was not operational and
counter-terrorism was out of its mandate. After long negotiations within the
EU, Europol authorized to conduct counter-terror investigations since 1998.
Until the 9/11 attacks, Europol was not
remarkable counter-terror actor within the EU. Counter-terror cooperation was pursued
among the member states rather than appealing to the Europol. After the 9/11
attacks, however, the EU political actors found the window of opportunity to
harmonize the EU counter-terrorism policy and they started to put forward
several counter-terrorism initiatives for better counter-terrorism cooperation in
the EU.
One of these initiatives was the European
Council agreed on the names of designated terrorist organisations. When any
organisation will be added to the list, consent of all member states are sought
for creating solidarity. This was an
important initiative for the fighting against international terrorism in the EU
because it created a common threat perception among the member states.
Furthermore, by seeking consent of all states, no member state has the excuse
to refrain conducting counter terrorism investigations to the listed
organisations.
Another initiative that created a common ground
in the EU was common definition of terrorism. With this decision, all member
states meet at the same point what is meant by terrorism and who are terrorist
organisations. Under the same framework decision, criminal penalties for terrorists
and terrorist activities harmonized and differences between member states
eliminated. When extradition of terrorists is necessary, there is no penalty
differences left between states that can be used by criminals as an argument to
stop extradition.
After these initiatives, Europol became much
functional organisation and sharing intelligence between member states was much
efficient because of these eliminated differences.
In consideration of OIC states, achieving a
Europol success through Islam-pol is not easy as thought. The main reason that
hinders functional Islam-pol is there is no common understanding in Islamic
states about what is meant by terrorism and who are terrorist organisations.
For instance, the Shia and Sunni Muslims see terrorism from different
perceptions. The Shia groups fighting in the Syria and Iraq seen as terrorist
organisations by Sunni Communities. On the other hand, the Sunni armed groups
fighting in the same region seen terrorists by Shia people. Under these
circumstances, creating a common threat perception among Islamic states is
impossible and in the absence of common threat perception how Islam-pol can
coordinate counter-terrorism cooperation?
In this respect, first priority for OIC states
is to stop proxy wars in the Middle East. They should not let continuation of
instability in the region by supporting armed groups just to expand their
regional influence. Then, they have to sit negotiation table to agree on
definition of terrorism and agree on the terrorist organisation that their
assets need to be frozen. If these steps could be taken by OIC states, there is
no major reason will be left to see success of Islam-pol project.
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