President Barack Obama and the United Nations have teamed against fighters who provide support for terrorist organizations by passing a resolution, which would restrict potential foreign fighters from being recruited and brought to the Middle East, according to The Associated Press. 

The United States is expecting the U.N. resolution to be approved at this month’s meeting overseen by President Obama. These foreign fighters pose a threat to the United States because they intend to join terrorist groups, which could affect many other countries. 

The resolution has the power to enforce authority upon persons or groups that do the recruiting for or aid al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL). “I agree with the U.S’s action to secure our nation as well as other countries from outside threats,”  said Samantha Stackpole, a junior forensic science major. 

According to the Associated Press, the draft Security Council resolution, would also demand the 193 U.N. member states to enforce punishments on nationals committing or aiding terrorist acts. 

The resolution warns citizens traveling or planning to travel internationally of the punishments if domestic laws are violated. Obama will chair a summit meeting Sept. 24 and to discuss the threat posed by foreign fighters, which is the main focus of the Security Council’s month-long term of rotating presidency. Currently, the debate continues over the U.S. draft resolution and the final copy will be voted on at another meeting. 

“I hope that the resolution gets a chance to be active to help the current situation in the Middle East, because the number of terrorist acts and fighters are rising,” said USM alumna Andrea Owens. 

According to a major terrorism expert who informed the Security Council on the foreign matters, 12,000 foreigners from 74 countries have joined the rebels in Syria to fight, and nearly 70 percent from other Middle Eastern countries compose of those fighters. 

“It deeply troubles me that Muslims are fighting each other,” said Tyler Meador, a USM alumnus and founder of the Muslim Student Association. “It also troubles me that the media has covered the fact that most Muslim leaders have spoken out against ISIL.”  

Meador said this incident has also sparked fear in Americans. 

“There is only one Islam, but there are many different philosophies regarding Islam,” he said. “The media is not helping matters due to the fact that the media is politically motivated. I personally do not
support ISIL.” 

The Syrian issue initiated the most significant assemblage of foreign fighters since the Soviet War in Afghanistan in the 1980s in which 20,000 foreigners were involved for over 10 years as reported by professor Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College in London, according to the AP. 

Governments are encouraged by the draft to involve local communities to support the eradication of extremist threats and actions. Governments are encouraged to empower communities to form peaceful alternatives to conflict and to promote neutral substitutions to violent narratives espoused by foreign terrorist fighters, as stated in the draft.