On The Five today, there was a debate regarding whether ISIS people are poor, needing jobs or whether they are middle class, well-educated people.
It is important to remember that within any structure there are the upper echelon and the lower ranks. When it comes to ISIS, the upper echelon like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (their Caliph), who has a BA, MA and a PhD in Islamic Studies, and Jihadi John (Mohammed Emwazi), who comes from the middle class and received a computer programming degree from University of Westminster, are well-educated, purposeful megalomaniacs. These are people who are intelligent enough to create effective propaganda and navigate through today's technological advances (social media in particular). While the lower ranks consist of people who are primarily motivated, to join ISIS, by ideology. Juan Williams is correct (probably) in asserting that these are lost souls. Whether they are middle class or not, they are people looking for purpose and meaning in life, which so many of us struggle with. And like many of us, they are finding it through religion. Unfortunately the religion that ISIS promotes is not just antisocial, but truly grotesque to the human race. It is a "religion" that promotes genocide, murder, and ultimately ego-centric selfishness (yeah, I know that's redundant, but the emphasis is necessary, as the "religion" excludes the rights AND the existence of other human beings).
AGAIN, the only effective (non-military) way to "combat" this "religion"/ideology, aka propaganda, is with counter-propaganda. the most effective of which would be to denounce ISIS' interpretation of Islam. The first step would be to gather other Muslim leaders and countries to stand in opposition of ISIS and their beliefs. Without their support, there will always be a level of legitimacy to ISIS' claims. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if such leaders and nations were holding their tongues, just to see if ISIS can pull off a Worldwide Caliphate.
The second step would be to use Islam against them. By delving into the Islamic religion and finding contradictory ideas, philosophies, verses, and quotes, we can create a rift between the ISIS propaganda and the true meaning of being a Muslim. Then each recruit will be rejecting Islam in favor for ISIS gibberish. So that those that join ISIS will, in fact, garner NO benefits from their suicidal and violent actions. There will be no "72 virgins" waiting for them when they die; there will be no place in Heaven for them; there will only be fire and damnation.
Unfortunately all of this goes back to Marie Harf and her poor statements, which I assume, reflect the thoughts from the White House. The comments she made were so naive and ignorant, that I, as a proud United States of America citizen, am embarrassed.
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