摘要
After unsettling some of the leading regional countries,the‘Arab Spring’reached in Syria in 2011.The violent forces it unleashed had widespread and dangerous implications for the region and the world.Groups opposed to the Syrian regime launched a struggle in March 2011,which soon turned to a civil war.The nature of the conflict was further transformed when Muslim extremist groups joined it with the objective to implement Sharia laws after the change of government.The most lethal among them is the‘Islamic State’or Da’esh,which has influence over large areas in Syria and Iraq.Through this war,the militants succeeded in amplifying the extremist message and expand the support base.Hence,they not only recruited fighters from the Arab and Muslim countries,but also attracted men and women from the far-off West.In fact,the Syrian conflict provided a rallying point to the Muslim extremists in various countries,after they had been weakened due to gradual decline of al-Qaeda.The article traces how the involvement of Da’esh in the Syrian conflict energized their global jihadist agenda.By using both primary and secondary sources,the study shows that the emergence of the Islamic State not only increased regional strife(Sunni-Shiite rivalry),but it also increased extremist outreach to strike at far off places in Europe,America and Asia.Thus,the militants of Da’esh used the Syrian war to take their extremists idea to places relatively unknown to militancy。
