Studying ISIS and Ourselves

The commander of American Special Operations in the Middle East, Major Gen. Michael K. Nagata, is reported to be seeking help in learning why the Islamic State is so dangerous. If he doesn't know, what does that say about the prospect for victory over these radical terrorists who seek to destroy everyone who disagrees with them?

"We do not understand the movement," the Times quotes Gen. Nagata as saying in confidential minutes of a conference call he held with more than three dozen "experts." Until we understand it, he said, "we are not going to defeat it. We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea."

In the pursuit of understanding ISIS or ISIL -- or as Secretary of State John Kerry has started calling it, "Daesh" (the Arabic acronym for the group, considered pejorative in the Middle East) -- General Nagata is calling for reinforcements. According to the Times, one of the observations made by some in the conference call was about the Islamic State's "capacity to control" a population, using "psychological tactics" such as terrorism, "religious and sectarian narratives (and) economic controls."

Enemies of the recent past have written books that served as motivators for those who followed those ideologies. The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 and written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, formed the basis for the Bolshevik Revolution six decades later and the creation of the Soviet Union.

Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" defined his political and social philosophy as well as his plans for Germany and eventually the world.

In this latest war, the Koran is the textbook of jihadists, and it doesn't help when Westerners seek to define what is "legitimate" Islam and what is not. Many in the Islamic world reject Western values and thus any Western interpretation of their religion.

A poll published last July in Saudi Arabia's Al-Hayat news found that 92 percent of Saudis believe the Islamic State conforms to the values of Islam and Islamic law. Other polls throughout the Islamic world show large numbers of Muslims at least sympathetic, if not openly supportive, of tactics used by extremists.

While Gen. Nagata and his experts are studying the "psychology" of ISIS, they might also look to the moral and spiritual state of Europe and the United States. An argument could be made that radical Islamists have it partly right when they diagnose Western culture as "godless" and decadent. If their solution is the wrong one, we might ask ourselves what the right one would look like.

In Europe, the cultural and spiritual influences of Christianity have been in retreat for some time as churches close for lack of attendees. As Bethany Blankley notes in a Washington Times story, "In Norway, Sweden and Denmark, imams call for the decapitation and/or jail for those who reject Islam, because as immigrants they reject European laws and values." Sweden, alone, Blankley notes, has lost 1 million Protestant churchgoers in recent years. When a vacuum is created, others rush to fill it and in this case the "others" are radical Islamists.

The U.S and "experts" can conduct their surveys and studies, but while they are trying to decipher the "psychology" of ISIS, they might consider the merits of Islam's indictment of Western "values," which don't seem so valuable anymore as many have become self-destructive. For Europe and increasingly in the U.S. these include: negative population growth (U.S. population growth is positive, thanks to immigration, but is nearly stagnant at 0.7 percent); a growing secularism that finds no purpose in life other than pleasing one's self; and the exposure and marketing of the female body, which is an affront to Muslims who regard modesty as a fundamental virtue.

Self-examination and what we Westerners have allowed ourselves to become might be a useful parallel study while Gen. Nagata and his experts try to figure out how to defeat the Islamic State.

I prefer the Roman solution. As I read Roman history the Senate would seek a somewhat reasonable solution, in their view, to the problem .

If their solution was accepted, even though the people that the solution applied to had to be slapped around a bit by a few Legions, those slapped benefited as Allies.

If they proved intransigent they would suffer a very large population decline. I think that this solution would work in the Iraq, Syria area, past is prologue.

A poll published last July in Saudi Arabia's Al-Hayat news found that 92 percent of Saudis believe the Islamic State conforms to the values of Islam and Islamic law.

This is a point it is important to understand. There is no bright line, no philosophical barrier between "moderate" Islam and the nutjob variety. "Moderate" muslims believe that the nutjobs are more muslim than they, they always feel vaguely unmanned by people who are ready to kill or die for Islam.

Islam is the one religion I can think of where the deeper you go, the more dangerous you become. There are muslims who know that the nutjobs are evil, in every fight against the jihadists we have muslim allies, but we also have muslim allies who turn on us and go over to the jihadists. Jihadist nutjobbery has a powerful pull on the muslim mind.

Christianity and western civilization have made inroads into the muslim mind, so when you listen to "moderate" muslim talk about God and morality, you will hear whispers of Christian thought. But the deeper they go, the more distant these whispers and the more willing they are to justify or commit atrocities that would shock any sane mind.

It turns out that the only "good" muslim is a bad muslim; committed muslims turn out to be ISIS, Al Qaeda, Talibs, and their supporters.

The writer is right about another important point; it is the loss of confidence in Christianity that has left the West unmanned in the face of a jihadist threat. It turns out that the loss of faith in God has left the West unable to even defend itself from the most horrific monsters ever turned loose upon the world.

The wages of this separation from God is extinction.

After 9-11 a few dozen people gathered on chat program to understand Islam. From what I understand this happened on quite few chat programs. The Quran and Hadiths were read and studied. An unbiased history was reviewed. The current affairs of what was going on at the time not only in the Middle East but around the world and in this country as well. Death threats were given, fatwahs were declared. The learnings of Islam really didn’t come from the likes of the Quran or the Hadiths although those give many laughs and many discussions. The real lesson came from the muslims themselves. We heard from the apostates and we heard from those who lived their lives knowing what real oppression is. The muslims we interacted with on a day to day basis in their true form as they hid from behind their computer screens showed the true Islam. We debated with them and saw the wolf in sheeps clothing. We infiltrated their secret rooms and understood back then what was really happening. Oh sure you heard taqqiya and you heard this and that, but the chill that came down my spine was they day I heard them planning with my own two ears in a room they thought was private. Never trust a muslim, period. Why? Because they will charm the dickens out of you and turn around and want to drive the dagger so far inside you that you will never know what is coming. The chat program had a real issue with these rooms as each side pitted against the other. People who did not want to hear the truth never stayed long as if to say, this is not reality. I personally have fought with preachers and pastors who claim to have degrees in Comparative Religion. They claim Islam is misunderstood and is really peaceful, only to look at the history of Islam and know for a fact that they have been sold a bill of goods. To do polls and studies now? They have missed the boat as it left the dock long ago. Someday maybe one day someone will really understand Islam is and never has been about God or heaven or anything to do with religion. It will and always will be about one jealous man who was the black sheep of his family and the laughing stock of his city, infatuated with sex, control, power and revenge.

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