Defeating ISIL will not bring peace to Syria and the Middle East

Daily Mail:

A total of 15 jihadi groups are waiting in the wings to replace ISIS in Syria a think tank backed by former prime minister Tony Blair will report tomorrow.

The jihadi groups have a total of 65,000 fighters in Syria that are poised to fill the vacuum should ISIS be defeated, according to The Sunday Times.

In the report, which has been seen by MailOnline, the author's find that some of the groups have designs on attacking the west, with the number one group named as Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate.

It warns that British and coalition attacks on ISIS could be a 'strategic failure' if it overlooks other groups operating in the country and that sixty per cent of rebel groups are 'Islamist Extremists'.

Jabhat al Nusra already controls a significant amount of territory in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib and imposed strict Islamic law having fought local rebel groups as well as forces loyal to President Assad.

The groups listed are all salafis, a strictly conservative branch of Islam and according to the report, are driven by 'Salafi-jihadism'.
'The current focus on the military defeat of ISIS does not consider the other groups in Syria [and around the world] with exactly the same global ideology and ambitions.

'Our study of 48 rebel factions in Syria revealed that 33 per cent - nearly 100,000 fighters - follow the same ideology as ISIS. If you also take into account Islamist groups (those who want a state governed by Islamic law), this figure jumps to 60 per cent.'
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Those who claim the problem is not with Islam are ignoring the obvious.  The Salafist movement appears to be expanding and it is unlikely that any of its members are subject to changing their hearts and minds.  The only way to defeat the movement is to convince them that their cause is hopeless.  That is unlikely under the Obama administration which seems to have a strategy of giving them hope.