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Pakistani attorney and author Rafia Zakaria wrote an op-ed in Al Jazeera America about the Islamic extremists' war on fun, including sports, music, even dining in a fine restaurant. Zakaria points out that this apparent obsession predates the existence of ISIS by several decades (at least); he suspects this is a big reason why the attackers chose Paris, renowned worldwide for its brilliant culture and joie de vivre.
Terrorism’s targeting of the merry is universal and indiscriminate, a division of the world between those who wish to live and laugh and hope and those who kill and destroy. The latter are deadly and relentless, and they have already squeezed out the mirth from too many of the world’s cities, from Karachi, Kabul and Baghdad to Nairobi and Beirut.
Zakaria experienced this aspect of terror firsthand. A high school friend had just passed a big exam, and was out celebrating with his family at a restaurant in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists struck.
Al Jazeera America provides a separate analysis warning that military action alone cannot defeat ISIS (aka ISIL), which of course is not a "nation" in the traditional sense, but more of a guerilla outfit like Al Qaeda, that opportunistically seized a stronghold in chaotic regions of Syria and Iraq. The piece's author, political scientist Rami G. Khouri, recommends that both the West and Muslim nations of the Middle East spend more resources on addressing economic and political problems facing impoverished youths who are potentially attracted by the ISIS' recruiting pitch:
If the underlying threats to ordinary citizens’ lives in autocratic Arab-Islamic societies remain unaddressed — from jobs, water and health insurance, to free elections, a credible justice system and corruption — the flow of recruits to movements like ISIL or something even worse will persist and even accelerate.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday November 17 2015, @02:07AM
To stop young men blowing themselves up and killing people you need to give them a reason not to. ISIS puts across this belief that the reckoning/armageddon/malahim is upon us, and they want western boots on the ground in Dabiq to further that line. Hell they might even believe it.
However the youth shooting up theatres wouldn't particularly welcome the end of the world if they thought the world was half-decent. It's not. They see a world where the west is bombing the crap out of people they consider to be brothers (and make no mistake, the attackers, be it Sydney, Paris, Ankara or Nairobi, are inevitably local), where they have no job prospects, where they are hated by people in the street, and where they hear two voices
1) this is a war and we will crush you
2) come join us and rise up in war against the devil
ISIS are trying very hard to turn this into a Muslim vs everyone else war, and their allies are helping them. One ISIS ally said he wanted to shut down mosques! Another said that Christians should be given asylum, but Muslims shouldn't. We need to fight ISIS and their allies.