Ceasefire and How to Destroy the Islamic State

Nafeez Ahmed takes a look at the roots of the Islamic State (No Piers Morgan. This Is How to Destroy the Islamic State, Middle East Eye, 8 February 2015), arguing that IS should not be seen as a natural product of some inherent violence unique to Islam.

Ahmed argues instead that the radical group uses Islam as a means to gain legitimacy and support from the large numbers of people who witnessed, and were affected by, the huge death toll caused by Western actions in Iraq and elsewhere since the First Gulf War. Many of the fighters that support the Islamic State are motivated not by religion, but by political grievances and/or lack of prospects in life. - See more here: Ceasefire.ca

To cure a disease, one needs to first diagnose it correctly. A disease as mind-blowingly disturbing and insidious as IS requires a process of diagnosis that is commensurate.

Distorted pseudo-religious ideologies don’t become capable of conquering vast areas of land and indoctrinating thousands of foot-soldiers, out of the blue, purely due to the power of fanatical belief. For violent extremism to translate into terrorism requires a material infrastructure: not just ideas, but the capacity to transmit those ideas, receptivity to those ideas, and concomitantly, the organisational training and networks to act on those ideas.

See more here: No Piers Morgan. This is How to Destroy the Islamic State