Our problem in tackling ISIS is that it is not just a piece of land inhabited by enemies of the Western World but an ideology willing to die for its belief that the West must be annihilated.
Recently Avigdor Lieberman, (former Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs) called for a full scale rooting out of ISIS…by NATO. Well, Turkey might not be so keen to help.
And as our military experts remind us, taking territory is so much easier than holding it. As Americans well know, it is very hard to know when it is “mission accomplished.” Is it ever? Lieberman’s Trumpian proposal has very real problems.
But how do we deal with a large scale ideological conflict? Didn’t we do that already when we defeated the Communist World? True it took a very long time to achieve and exacted a high price. In addition, although Communism started as an ideal it was quickly transformed into a “pretend” ideology. Its leaders stopped believing in it and used it principally to consolidate their power.
But Communism, though it stirred many people, did not generate the fervor that ISIS has achieved. Did anyone hear of any young communists blowing themselves up shouting “Marx is Great?”
ISIS, in contrast, is attracting and brainwashing young, ignorant, disaffected recruits with promises of a better life in Paradise where they will be greeted and wooed by 72 beautiful virgins. (Young women who become martyrs are not offered an equivalent benefit.)
It seems that we are dealing with a mutation to a new species of humanoids devoid of many of the traits of empathy, generosity and tolerance that mankind has slowly developed.
And so it is difficult not to be pessimistic about our ability to deal with this scourge. What can we offer in response? The imperfections of democratic rule? The greed of capitalism? Nobody has yet invented an anti-jihadist vaccine, and some of these addicts are too far gone for us to reach.
We can only start at the bottom with the very young. See to it that we give them the proper environment to thrive, a good basic education, role models to emulate, opportunities for jobs and social integration. We must make sure that they do not inhabit a parallel world, and live in enclaves where they nurse grievances that evolve into hatred.
We also need to keep stirring the melting pot of the world. It makes a pretty good soup.
Editor’s Note: Simone thrives on your comments. We encourage you to contribute your thoughts.
I don’t think we are seeing a new species, rather we are seeing people who have reverted to more primitive ways of thinking and behaving. Studies of humanoids have shown high rates of homicides among early mankind. (The evidence being damage to skeletons). The evidence supports a conclusion that homicide rates went down as hominoids became more civilized. The second important point I would make is that with advanced weapons like rocket grenades, AK47’s, explosive vests, etc. a single person can be much more destructive than early humans could be with pre-bronze age weapons. So today a human can wreak… Read more »
Yes, This makes sense.
Totally share the view that friends, family, society at large and governments should work together to rehabilitate those extremists willing to change, and their victims; but also endeavour to avoid unequal development of regions. Encouraging adults to practise birth control will also help.
I totally disagree. Silverbacks and other apes seldom kill each other for pleasure, territory or dominance. The incidence of skeletal remains that point to humanoids killing each other is but a minor fraction of those who were wise enough to know that the battle against carnivorous predators could only be won by increasing tribal numbers. Empathy, generosity, tolerance, compassion and love are traits that have always been the basis of the incredible deep layer of natures’ symbiotic baseline while competition, rivalry, opposition, antagonism and war is but the thin surface we now choose to emphasize in the media, schools, history… Read more »
Simone,
You always give your readers some issue to view in a different light. Thank you for that.
In response to Dr.Van Beveren’s comment, comparing jihadists to great apes would be an insult to apes. What I did have in mind was hypothetical humanoids. Something like mythical demons totally devoid of any soul. This was a flight of fancy rather than a scientific observation.
The blame lies all around. Be it the barbarism of the terrorists or countries who by their actions are barbaric and the comtries that support them. The status of mankind is indeed pathetic. It is only through honest negotiations that conflicts can end. But where is the honesty?
I totally agree with you. The west is behaving like a serpent that is biting its own tail.
There is only one anti-jihad cure, the same one which works in a zombie apocalypse: a bullet in the head. Once someone is willing to chop heads, rape children and burn people alive in cages for Allah, there is no “de-radicalization” path for him (or her). Just like zombies, they’ll keep coming at you and Allahu Akbaring till you put them down.
I agree that we are in a phase of crisis intervention and should be educating and training children of the world to prevent bigotry, sexism, scientism, religiosity, phobias, anhialation of animals, poisoning of real food.
The real monsters are those who have unimaginable stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction of unimaginable kinds, who have dropped atomic bombs on cities full of civilian men, women, and children, who are going into other’s homes and killing them at will by drones, precision laser-guided missiles, who are going into other countries and buying people to be their mules and blow themselves up in public places and places of worship, who have gone into others’ cities and built walls between people and made them cut each others throats, who support daily murder of innocent men, women, and children, who… Read more »
It is not often I read an article when I agree with every word written. This is one of them.
Writers have a hard time; I do not know how they survive all the criticism, stupid comments, and trash written by fools and trolls without giving up.
Thanks, Simone, keep trying, keep writing for our sakes.
when the west supplies weapons to those killing innocent humans they are part of the creation of such destructive groups I think those Isis will not exist in the futur but other groups will rise as long as the source of evil still free to do evil acts
Well, you got “Give peace a chance” right!
We are dealing with an ideology and a belief system here. We all know the problem and how to tackle it at the root, but nobody is even willing to mention the culprit. How do you deal with someone who is willing and ever ready to die for their god, more so if such instructions to kill unbelievers is coming from the very ‘holy book’ of this very ideology cum religious/political system? I don’t want to be charged with bigotry and intolerance, so I won’t mention the culprit either. Meanwhile, like the proverbial Ostrich lets continue to bury our heads… Read more »
How exactly are we “actively embracing and making the environment friendly for this evil ideology to thrive?”
What are we doing that we shouldn’t?
Do you have any solutions?
Please tell us Frank.
Sir, long time. Unfair and double standards foreign policies, aggression, bad leadership and corruption are our bane.
I totally agree with Frank especially as the instructions to kill unbelievers is coming from a “holy book” of a religious system. I see the attack as against Christianity and the Western power per se. The western world have turned against their creator. They are now discouraging Christianity and encouraging Islam. Now, the gospel of repentance which alone has the power to change the hearts of evil men has been suppressed. Pastors are prosecuted for preaching against practices which are abominable in the sight of God. Prosperity gospel has become the other of the day and because of this God… Read more »
I agree to a great extent Simone’s comments and prescriptions about dealing with ISIS.However, I think there are areas where all of us need to focus our attention and that is: 1.Education -A large number of the Muslim populations around the world remain uneducated in both literacy and numeracy partly due to poverty,lack of access and in some situations discrimination in Muslim minority countries which we must address. Furthermore, quite a large number of people in the West including the elite,need education on the concept of the term Jihad which is often wrongly translated as “war”.Jihad means a religious duty… Read more »
Whether it is a case of reverting to backwardness or mutating to new species of humanoids the point about new forms of socialization for the youth of today (not moslem youth only) is very relevant. But to succeed I think the greed of capitalism and the loop-holes in the practices of democracy should be sincerely dealt with
We encourage them.
ISIS emerged as a Sunni Muslim state carved out of territories from Shiite-dominated Iraq and Syria. What business did the West have in bombing it and siding with the Shiite powers? The West should have kept itself aloof from this religious / sectarian conflict.
As I see it, ISIS is simply defending itself and fighting for its survival.
ISIS did not invent suicide attacks, in WWII the Japanese did it, in Sri Lanka the Tamil Tigers did it.
Drawing a parallel, the erstwhile kingdom of Bhutan borrowed the best from all constitutions of the world and compiled it into a document to lead the newly formed democracy once the king handed over to the members of parliament. Time has come, I feel, to adopt the best and simplest messages of all world religions and inculcate it into the moral fabric of nations. But the question is do leaders have that kind of zeal and inclination and vast resources to carry out such a stupendous exercise? This is where may be information technology (with its huge number churning capacity)… Read more »
Are we at last ready to ask the following question: Could any individual, regardless of their social or economical background, of their education, and regardless of their religious, racial, gender or national identity, could any individual who perpetrate an act of violence towards another, actually be a less evolved human being? Can each of us claim that he/she has never perpetrated any form of violence (thoughts included) against another? The blame game only deepens divisions and locks both opressors and opressees and all in between in some kind of label and role that prevent them to transcend and transform, and… Read more »
Mr Johnson Tunu, No one has ever succeeded 100% to REHABILITATE Extremists Muslims as they are brainwashed against “Infidels and Kefars” from birth. They live and die by their QURAN.
And by ISIS do we mean The Israeli Secret Intelligence Service?
It sounds like the Vulcans vs. the Romulans. They started out similar and their cultures diverged.
Farooque: Quite a blow-out! And alas true. Even if it is the one part in a multi-faceted conflict. You seem to have overlooked the economic portion, how profit drives much of US warfare and how US is on the verge of destroying world economy. You also left out American missionaries brainwashing uneducated people abroad into religious fundamentalists. Religion is clearly destroying the human race and its societies. Rather than preventing greed, corruption, violence, terrorism, amassing of wealth and abuse of women and children, it seems to support it. So it is a useless tool to produce better living conditions and… Read more »
Firoze: Fighting for its survival by throwing homosexuals from rooftops and stoning women to death? Come on! There must be some limits to naivety. And deeds of terror cannot be excused by the fact that someone else invented the method.
Mr. Jacobsen: In war you must have absolute conviction and ability to demonize your opponents to do the unthinkable. Imagine how could a civilized and cultured, Catholic nation, Germany, send 6 million people, including children to the gas chambers? How was America built? On the trans-Atlantic slave trade, 15 million Africans, countless millions died during the boat trip and in working the plantations. Niggers were demonized and thought to be sub-human for the civilized Christain conscience to do the unthinkable, in two centuries the death toll from American slavery exceeded Nazi death camp numbers. The two centuries of British rule… Read more »
I do agree to your historic overview. Man seems to have an endless capacity for evil in the name of some creed, dictator, deity, superstition etc. But I don’t think evil is unstoppable, and I think man learns and eventually knows what is right and wrong. Most of the atrocities you mention belong to the past, to a history that should have given us enough knowledge to avoid the evil performed by ISIS and other terrorist groups or individuals. I will in no way use the evils of the past to excuse the evils done today. We all surely should… Read more »
How delicious, I just love it all
Quite wrong. That idea, that a human can be deprived of his religion and still thrive, was invented during Enlightenment, detailed during the end of 19th century and correctly implemented in Soviet Union and later derivatives like North Korea. The result is well known, common misery and dehumane society, and final self-destructionand that all in three or four generations. Dead end here. So, religion should be seen as the highest form of personality development, even not entering the category of truth. Christianity has created the Western world, Western civilisation, perhaps the best one from them all. Islam has created endless… Read more »
Gentlemen, just briefly peek back in to Europe when the Catholic Church held sway, when women were routinely burnt on the stakes. Remember Galileo was forced to recant his notion of the earth moving around the sun. Any idea or free thought which conflicted the Church’s doctrine was met with death. Remember the Spanish Inquisition, which burnt hundreds of thousands of heretics on the stake. It was only after the Reformation of Martin Luther King which broke up the Catholic Church hold on power, the tyranny subsided. The Church’s shameful pedophile history persists till this day. ISIS is re-incarnation of… Read more »
I choose The Enlightenment!
By the way you forgot to ask the ladies.
You are wrong that the Enlightenment led to Communism. There is no connection. There are many people who lead good and moral lives without religion. Atheism does not equal Communism. Many wrongs have been committed in the name of religion including the Christian religion. Your reasoning is flawed.
DCC
Martin Luther or Martin Luther King?
My apology, I meant the 15th century German theologian who headed the Reformation NOT the 20th century Black American ” I have a Dream” fame civil rights leader!
Just ban ISLAM, that’s the root of the problem.
Martin Luther, not Martin Luther King.
Please remember: It is Muslims who are at the forefront in the fight against ISIS and Al-Qaeda, in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is Muslims who pay with their lives, for every precious life lost in Brussels and Paris there are 100 useless Muslim lives lost in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and in Turkey. Europe, population 300 million, has taken in 250,000 refugees; Turkey a land of 77 million shelters 3 million refugees from Syria! It is Muslims who are doing the dirty work for NATO and paying a huge price Has any one actually banned anything successfully? Did… Read more »
Good points. Since there are Muslims killing Muslims, one would be inclined to believe all this killing has something to do with religion. If religion is the root of evil, what do you think can be done? Is there a solution to this, including Christians killing Muslims and vice versa, Jews killing Muslims and vice versa, Hindus killing Muslims and vice versa and all religions killing non-believers, indigenous people, homosexuals, witches, women and so on, and so on?
Focus on the aliens. Bring ALL children to play and share with each other. EAT CALMING FOODS. Don’t listen to frantic music. Be an example of compassion, tolerance and gratitude. Take up the responsibility geographically closest to you. Create peace.
“It seems that we are dealing with a mutation to a new species of humanoids devoid of many of the traits of empathy, generosity and tolerance that mankind has slowly developed”.
Right! Exactly, It is the REVOLUTION that they are looking for, and they capture the hearts and minds of the very young all over the world.
If voting, waging war or (not) using drugs changed anything – the oligarchi would see to it that they’d all be illegal. Rich people may die but the oligarchi stays forever. “Kill, kill, kill the rich nations”. Unfortunately “collateral” people get in the way. THAT IS THEIR MESSAGE. The “churches” and our message has always been: $upport THE church (the one with the funny hats) and impoverish its parisheners; Keep moving political leaders, large corporations, $, food, etc. in small countries to our advantage; kill those that oppose capitalism – anonymously by drones if necessary; keep our own people occupied,… Read more »
Why were the Germans and French killing each in the two World Wars? Both of them were Catholic nations. The reasons were political so are the reasons for the fight in Syria and Iraq. Both the countries are in the midst of a sectarian civil war and horrible things happen in civil wars. Remember the Balkans conflict, where the Serbs, a Christian nation engaged in an orgy of rape and murder of Bosnian Muslim women, their deeds were just as heinous as the ISIS.
the solution is simple, first solve the eesrailee palestine conflict, stop all drone attacks, compensate iraq for false accusation of chemical weapons,
Sorry chum, the ISIL problem has its roots in the sectarian battle within Islam itself. This is a Shiite-Sunni conflict which predates the Israeli – Palestine conflict by 1400 years. The Shiite-Sunni conflict is far bloodier and claimed far more lives than the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“Sorry chum”: is a disrespectful phrase that is bullish and start wars. There is no need for it if you’re educating someone. Educators don’t lower themselves to those who are still ignorant about a subject. I’m sure I can best you in several and I don’t call you names. On the higher level of government this attitude becomes lethal. The Bush people are a prime example and people suffered. Disrespect starts in the trenches – in the streets, on the block, in the region, the parish, the county and on up. Now it’s the internet. Prejudices are formed. Unholy alliances… Read more »
Dear Simone,
Very interesting part of this story revolves around people who are Joining this dreaded organization who come from advanced value based western societies. Cutting down the conspiracy theories surrounding this organiztion We need you to analyze this and let us know your thoughts.
Avigdor liberman’s policies are well known hence his proposed solutions are going to increase the exasperations and not reduce it.
This responsive comment is from Simone….
The people who come from what you call advance based western societies seem never to have absorbed these values. It is far easier to let yourself be brainwashed into believing a simplistic mantra.
Indeed Mohammed, Muslims are at the forefront in the fight but they won’t want you to know that. It’s easier to say that the “effective drone strikes” are doing all the “work”.
We live in yet another crazy, hateful and egocentric time period. When will we learn just to respect each other no matter what religion/color/race/ideology!
Like Bob Marley already stated: “So much trouble in the world” …
why ISIS weapons are USA made ?? why General Motors sold 4000 4X4 vehicles to ISIS ?? why media don’t tell us who is funding ISIS and who is getting benefit of their acts ??
Muslims have been killing each other, since the day Prophet Muhammad [pbuh] died. Muhammad was a Messenger of Allah, but his followers tried to establish a monarchy. All his successors, [except Abu Bakr], Osman, Omar, and Ali, were killed by fellow Muslims in a mosque, while praying. So were the Prophets grandsons, Hussain, and Hassan. You say Iraq was a peaceful place, before the American invasion? Saddam and his Sunni clan ruled Iraq by gassing the Kurds and Shiite. His most spectacular achievements were attacking Iran in 1979 and occupying Kuwait in 1990. Now, the Shiites and Kurds are returning… Read more »
At 104 acres (42 ha), the US Embassy in Iraq, is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world. Is it possible that they are creating and operating monsters like ISIS, and attribute it to a Book :). Unfortunately there are Muslims, who have been sold to the idea that Muslims are killing Muslims. It is true though that they have become tools in the hands of the secret services agencies; they have been hired as mercenaries; they have been brainwashed and converted; all possibilities that together make up the current reality. As for the 1400 years old Shia-Sunni… Read more »
Islam it self means ‘refuge, shelter’ as it derives from the Arabic root, third person singular” salama, yaslamu’ ( he sought safety, peace). There should be a worldwide coordinated effort to publicize that Islam is a religion of peace and love and not hatred. Jihad has no meaning if one kills peaceful Muslims who are praying.
Khalid Muhammad
There seems to be a wide variety of interpretation of the word Islam. Most common is submission which gives it a somewhat different meaning than safety and peace. And it still OK to kill apostates, non-believers, homosexuals, people who mock your Prophet and so on, and so on. But I fully support your wish to make Islam into a religion of love and peace. How would you start your campaign?
You are right, technology has made us more efficient in both production AND violence. This means that a minority can have a disproportionate effect. People kill, guns dont. So take away the guns, since human nature is not going to change.
Your last point for me is the most important point. The West claim they are prime targets and the West remains the largest producer of the lethal weapons used by these Psycho yet they are silent because of greed.
I tell you, ISIS and other similar groups all over the world are simply attracting and brainwashing young, ignorant, disaffected recruits with promises of a better life in Paradise and I begin to wonder if these people that allow themselves to be brainwashed have their own sense of reasoning to make them know that this is nothing but clear lies. I mean, why leave the world in the most gruesome way and expect to be completely taken to paradise to go and have fun with women? Do they even think of the account they will give when they get asked… Read more »
Valid points you just pointed out, Simone. What about young women who become martyrs? Are they not offered an equivalent benefit of enjoying with 72 virgins when they get there? I think these people are just too gullible to be fooled by such empty promises. Though I have met people who have good hearts and wise enough. It’s just unfortunate their numbers are not enough to match these guys.
I agree with you. It seems that we are dealing with a mutation to a new species of humanoids devoid of many of the traits of empathy, generosity, and tolerance that mankind has slowly developed. No one had a conscience. Everyone seems to do things that will only take care of their own personal interests. Everyone wants to control the world not minding the means to get there. What a shame!
It will be good to start at the bottom with the very young as they are the ones who will likely grow up and meet this society turning worse. Giving them the proper environment to thrive, a good basic education, role models to emulate, opportunities for jobs and social integration will go a long way. This is exactly why I support NGOs that are out to catch young people and groom them the right way.