Yearender: Good international coordination a must to combat terrorism

ROOT CAUSES OF TERRORISM

For her part, Shahira Amin, an independent Egyptian journalist, said that the sense of injustice is a root cause of terrorism anywhere.

"With respect to the creation of Daesh in particular it is the invasion of countries, whether the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or the Iraq invasion when the Iraqi army was dismantled," she said, referring to the IS.

She pointed out that many have joined Daesh due to the internal situation in some countries, whether economic, social or religious, where youth can't find jobs and have no hope for the future.

"Addressing terrorism needs a concerted global effort," she stressed.

Sarah Eltantawi, professor of Comparative Religion and Islamic Studies at Evergreen State College in the United States, also mentioned widespread economic and political frustration as creating a hotbed for terrorism.

"A religious revivalism of the last forty years has filled the vacuum which other ideologies such as nationalism or socialism have been able to fill," she said.

The fact that Islam itself has been adopted by ultra-conservatives is one of the most intense challenges to promoting and rehabilitating what used to be a mainstream, gentle Islam, said Eltantawi.

Rashwan also mentioned the "humiliating way the Iraqi army was ruined" as one of the complex reasons for the IS presence.

According to the expert, the Western disregard of volunteers coming from their countries to be recruited by the IS is also part of the reasons for the IS rampancy.