Why does Saudi Arabia fund the ISIS?

Terrorism may appear to be mindless, but it is a well known fact there are governments which fund terrorist groups and use them as proxies to disrupt other nations.

India is no stranger to this concept and has been facing the proxies from Paksitan which continue to disrupt peace and tranquility, especially in Jammu and Kashmir and the occasional metropolitan strikes.

Tunisia witnessed a horrific attack last week in which an ISIS inspired gunman mercilessly targeted tourists. This attack is bound to have horrific ramifications on Tunisia which relies so much on tourism.

Was this an attack aimed at targeting tourists in a bid to gain popularity and publicity, or are there external governments which fund such strikes to ensure democracy is destablised?

Intelligence agencies from across the world including India which prepare dossiers to understand the functioning of the ISIS have clearly pointed out that the funding from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar is what keeps the terrorist outfit going.

Who funds the ISIS?

The ISIS does boast about its finances that it generates out oil wells. While these finances are sufficient for it to continue fighting in Iraq and Syria, what about attacks on other nations?

The attack in Tunisia makes it clear that this was a proxy battle that was waged on that nation in a bid to de-stablize. The attack on tourists was clearly aimed at destabilising the finances of Tunisia which relies heavily on tourism.

The ISIS gets its highest finances from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Tunisia has been growing and had put in place a model which was aimed at development. Tourism has been a main draw and this does not appear to have gone down too well with those Gulf monarchies who want to threaten the balance.

It has been found that these Gulf nations have been repeatedly funding the ISIS to ensure that they wage the proxy battles on countries such as Tunisia.

The ISIS gets its highest finances from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The ISIS is in a win-win situation here. Not only does it gain publicity while carrying out such strikes, but with the money that it earns, it also laughs its way into the bank.

Killing democracy:

Saudi has been one of the lead implementers of the Wahabi style of Islam. Attached to Wahabism is the Sharia law which ensures that democracy is buried 10,000 feet under the ground.

Tunisia on its part was making every attempt to rule in a democratic manner. It is considered to be a young democracy and sought to set an example in the region.

This is not a concept that Saudi or Qatar would like to have in place. They want to ensure that the concept of democracy which Tunisia had managed to implement so well does not spread in the region.

Saudi would go that extra mile to ensure that any form of democracy in the region is beaten down and hence along with Qatar will continue to fund the ISIS heavily and use it as a proxy.

Break the finances:

Even in the Indian context if one were to look at it, groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba have relied heavily on funds either sent by Saudi or collected in that country.

There is a specific financing wing in countries such as Qatar and Saudi which fund terrorist organizations in a bid to ensure that democracy is disturbed in as many parts of the world.

For countries wanting to disturb democracy, the ideal way to go about it is by funding terrorist groups and using them as proxies.

Pakistan has been doing the same in case of India for several decades now. Experts point out that the best way to get rid of these proxies is to break their finances.

However, it becomes a tough call when there are governments which finance such terrorist groups. For this there ought to be more international pressure on such governments funding terror.