The consecutive massacres that took place in Paris on Friday night have overtly revealed that DAESH is the greatest threat facing the world. We are facing a modernist and capitalist structure that is managed with a very Western mentality and strikes the West itself with the West's own weapons.

DAESH calls itself an Islamic state. Its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was born in 1971, studied at Baghdad University and was tortured in American jails in Iraq - a process that sources attribute his radicalism to. DAESH, however, changed its strategies and objectives under the leadership of Baghdadi following Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death. The group, which was initiated under Zarqawi's leadership and was based on Salafism, changed its name to the Islamic State after Baghdadi became its leader in 2010 and then it extended into Syria. Its main objective is to purify Islam of all external factors and re-establish a caliphate. At least the group's leading staff describes its objectives in this way and uses the grandchildren of Muslims, whom the West has oppressed since its colonial history began, to this end. Their anger brings DAESH's never-ending war force.

As far as I can see, the West still adopts the same arrogant attitude to such a monster as it shows to Muslims. It underestimates DAESH's intellect and describes it merely as an atrocity. However, one needs to first understand a danger in order to overcome it.

There are a good many people specializing on this subject, but I recommend you read Loretta Napoleoni's "The Islamist Phoenix: The Islamic State (ISIS) and the Redrawing of the Middle East" in which she simply and clearly explains the basic differences between DAESH, also known as ISIS, and al-Qaida, al-Baghdadi's strategies and how he has brought the organization to the current stage.

DAESH has a structure that goes beyond a terrorist organization. It is a terrorist state with a flag, a currency and unnamed ministries. One of its important features is that it collects taxes in major amounts from the places it seizes and stands on its feet. It holds a significant amount of money and continues to expand by using the oppression of Sunnis. It is essentially fundamentalist, but its methods are very modern. It claims to return to the essence of Islam on the one hand, and it runs completely counter to Islam, on the other.

First of all, this is completely opposite to the basic philosophy of Islam, which is a religion of mercy and compassion and adopts the principle that one man's death is the death of humanity. That is why we deceive ourselves by emphatically saying that this has nothing to do with Muslims. Certainly, this ferocity and terror has nothing to do with our religion, but has something to do with Muslims who have always been humiliated, oppressed and defeated since Western colonialism began. This anger is what gave rise to DAESH, whose attacks add a feeling of triumph to this anger. We are facing a community that has nothing to lose and the extent of its violence cannot be made out. This community will grow further if measures that are taken to prevent this violence target Muslims. A true test is starting for the West now. If it manages to hold on to reason, tries to understand DAESH and seeks solutions, something might change. Let us note that understanding something does not mean justifying it.