In the cafes, the talk is all about wanting an end to war

It is not an overstatement to say that the Middle East is a mess. Before we start, though, we need to remember that there are conflicts and disasters across the world, and often they go unmentioned because they are not in places of interest to the superpowers.

For now, let us focus on what is happening in this region. I’ll leave the in-depth political and historical analyses to the experts, and focus on what is being said on the ground and among regular people who, like me, are baffled by this ever-growing cancer of death and hate that seems to be engulfing the region.

“Crisis” has almost become synonymous with the Middle East.

It seems that every time we turn around, there is a new group of refugees fleeing for their lives, either from bombardment, as in Gaza, or from armed militants like the Islamic State fighters better known in the Arab world as “Daaesh”.

People are becoming refugees in their own countries, running from one place to the other, displaced several times, losing family members along the way. It has been horrible, and continues to be horrible, for hundreds of thousands of citizens across Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen and Libya. It spilt over into Lebanon as hundreds had to flee their homes as battles raged on in the north. And it is not over in Lebanon, with the return of conspiracy theories as well as “civil war” rhetoric that exacerbates an already overwhelmed and overheated state.

There are so many armed groups these days that you can lose count. They get confused with each other when they are reported about and are misnamed or renamed.

But because many of them are on social media, it is like we are all sitting back, watching a movie where the bad guys are winning, posting photos of themselves killing and grinning to the camera. But the climax is yet to happen as we wait for a “hero” to show up and save the day.

The extremists – both the religious extremists and those who denounce all religion – are taking up the spotlight while the moderate voices remain quiet on the sidelines.

But you can hear them in shisha places and cafes, talking about the crisis. Most are fearful about where the Middle East is heading as groups like the Islamic State take over villages and cities, killing and pillaging, destroying homes as well as cultures and heritage on their way.

I always like to listen to the elders, as they have probably seen it all.

“It has happened before,” said one elderly Druze sheikh I met on my recent trip. He spoke of previous wars on the same lands. “The only difference is that you actually get to see it as it happens due to social media.”

Elders from other religions and sects were at the same meeting, and they all agreed: “We are always fighting, and we don’t even know why and what for.”

One of the more dramatic effects is the regularity with which families report members going missing, only for them to be found in conflict zones “doing jihad”.

Countries around the world have been trying to stop these overzealous, often very young Muslim citizens who have never even been to the Middle East. What is dangerous is to view it somehow as a “Sunni versus everyone else” war. In reality, groups like the Islamic State will kill just about anyone to create a “caliphate”.

The latest news is about a poor mother who discovered that her 10- and 11-year-old sons were taken by her Saudi ex-husband to join Islamist militants in Syria. He told her to count them as "birds in heaven". I can't even imagine her shock as she saw an Instagram photo of them taken in Turkey on their way to war.

They were pictured holding weapons, including an AK-47 rifle and a grenade. Do these children know who they will be fighting and why?

The bottom line is that we can’t just sit back and discuss issues like this in cafes; we have to take a more active role in weakening terrorists. Perhaps we should start by deactivating their social media, so they can’t get their message through.

Fighting back has to start somewhere.

rghazal@thenational.ae

On Twitter: @Arabianmau