Australia should beef up counter-terrorism measures: expert

Wilkins said Australians returning from combat in Syria and Iraq should face greater scrutiny, with several of the eight Islamic State (IS)-backed Paris bombers believed to have fought with the jihadist group abroad before carrying out the coordinated killings. Around 30 Australians have reportedly returned from these conflict zones.

"When we started that process of control orders we asked the question: so what do we do with this university of terrorism, which is what Syria and Iraq is?" Wilkins said in comments published by Fairfax Media on Wednesday.

"You need to be able to say, 'Well, I'm sorry, you can freely go around Belgium or France or Australia but we're going to need to monitor your telephone, your computer, your finances and your movements until further notice'."

"The take-out message (from Paris) for me is that the response, the use of control orders, needs to be much stronger. In a modern, liberal democracy that's about the only thing you can do."

From the Quran:

(8:15) Believers, whenever you encounter a hostile force of unbelievers, do not turn your backs to them in flight.

(8:16) For he who turns his back on them on such an occasion - except that it be for tactical reasons, or turning to join another company - he shall incur the wrath of Allah and Hell shall be his abode. It is an evil destination

comment: The Qur’an does not forbid orderly retreat under strong pressure from the enemy provided it is resorted to as a stratagem of war, for example seeking reinforcements or joining another party in the rear. What the Qur’an does forbid is disorderly flight produced by sheer cowardice and defeatism. Such a retreat takes place because the deserter holds his life dearer than his cause. Such cowardice has been characterized as one of those three major sins which, if committed, can be atoned for by no other good deed whatsoever. These three sins are: ascription of divinity to anyone or anything other than God, violation of the rights of parents, and flight from the battlefield during fighting in the way of God. (See al-Mundhiri, ‘Kitab al-Jihad’, ‘Bab al-Tarhib min al-Firar min al-Zahf’- Ed.) In another tradition the Prophet (peace be on him) has mentioned seven deadly sins which totally ruin a man's Next Life. One of these is flight from the battlefield in an encounter between Islam and Unbelief. (Muslim, ‘K. al-lman’, ‘Bab al-Kabi’ir wa Akbaruha’; Bukhari, ‘K. al-Wasaya’, ‘bab - fi Qawl Allah - Tala: inna al-ladhina Ya’kuluna Amwal al-Yatami Zulman’ - Ed.) This has been declared a deadly sin because in addition to being an act of sheer cowardice, it demoralizes others and can generate demoralization which can have disastrous consequences. An individual soldier's desertion might cause a whole platoon, or even a whole regiment, and ultimately the whole army, to take flight. For once a soldier flees in panic, it is hard to control the others.

http://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=8&verse=11

This means that all returnees from Syria etc. even if they want to depart from IS/Daesh will face a conflict between their faith and the fact that they have departed from the battlefield. If they meet a charismatic recruiter they will find it very difficult to say no to him. Many are driven by a belief that they have been a sinner earlier and the only way to go to Paradise is to be martyred (= killed for Allah) We have to prevent them from doing that here, and this will not be easy.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb:

If we absolutely need to put people in Guantanamo, it would be far more effective to ship over there the Salafi preachers, Wahabi clerics, not just the people swayed by their teaching. And if we need to correct the profound Saudi problem, we need to start by sending to them OUR preachers, educating them into tolerance, explaining the very concept of the separation of church and state,. Or, better even, encourage Muslim preachers who promote religious tolerance (”laka dinak wa li dini”) — instead of seeing them ostracized.

And if you find violence unavoidable, it should be directed at the Saudi and Qatari funders of violence, as well as the Salafi theorists, rather than the young performers.
https://www.facebook.com/nntaleb/posts/10153428463618375

Saudi Arabia’s Curriculum of Intolerance

View excerpts from Saudi Ministry of Education Textbooks for Islamic Studies: Arabic with English Translation

https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/saudi-arabias-curriculum-intolerance

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