Isis and Taliban in JIhad against each other??

[thir]

https://www.khaama.com/isis-taliban-announced-jihad-against-each-other-3206

If this is indeed true, is that amazingly good news, or does it simply mean more normal people getting in the middle and getting slaughtered??

[Thorne]

Yes. And yes. Maybe this will push the "normal" people into finally rising up against the terrorists and fundamentalists. Either way, having the nutjobs fighting each other can only be a good thing. As long as you're not caught in the middle.

[thir]

Yes. And yes. Maybe this will push the "normal" people into finally rising up against the terrorists and fundamentalists. Either way, having the nutjobs fighting each other can only be a good thing. As long as you're not caught in the middle.


I do not think it possible for ordinary people to rise up against terrorist - we wouldn't be able to do that either.

[Thorne]

I do not think it possible for ordinary people to rise up against terrorist - we wouldn't be able to do that either.

I think good people can do a lot more than you give them credit for. And 'rising up' doesn't have to involve violence. Let the two factions perpetrate the violence against one another. Meanwhile, good people condemn their actions, condemn those who support their actions, ridicule those who promote those actions. It's mostly a matter of letting other people know that they are not alone in wanting an end to the terrorism.

While it's not nearly as violent (yet), we see that kind of think happening even now in the US and other places regarding gay marriage. People are laughing at the absurd, violent, religious rhetoric coming from the right wing. By putting their over-the-top idiocy on full public display, good people are causing other good people to see just how ludicrous and bigoted the right has become. When they see supposedly powerful people becoming apoplectic over having their own words broadcast to the world, the good people realize just how evil those others are.

The same can be done for those terrorist groups and the imams who support them! Speak out against them, cut off their funding, ridicule their rhetoric, and before too long they will be relegated to the backwaters of the world, impotent and unimportant. And then hopefully Islam, like so many other religions, can begin its long, slow slide into irrelevancy and obscurity.

[thir]

I see this happening in a lot of cases, as for instance with gay marriages, and I do agree that many problems have to be solved by real, ordinary people.

But in the case of fundamentalists I think much more needs to be known about the causes of them and what drives it, religion is a much too simple answer. For instance, why does Isis get as many voluntary recruits from Europe as the Kurds do?

[Thorne]

Religion isn't actually a cause. It's a tool used by fundamentalists, and others. It's a means of controlling other people by appealing to their fears of death and solitude. There are many other tools, too. Ultimately, there are people who want to control other people, and they use those tools to do it.

In the case of ISIS, I have no idea what could motivate some young people, especially young women, to join their cause. Maybe some of the young men are eager to kill people, and see ISIS as means towards that end. Maybe they think they can make their fortunes. To me, though, what would be more interesting is to learn how many of them have become disillusioned since they got there, and would like to come back, but can't. That's the problem with such controlling groups: once you're in their clutches it can be damned near impossible to break free.

[slaveboy 6]

Why anyone would want to join a murderous group like ISIS is beyond me. They've pissed of the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Japanese and most Americans. I'm not a warmonger, and am mainly a person, but this group has raised my ire. They need to be dealt with sternly.

[Flip Flops]

I think it would be unwise to think that we could know anything about them or what's going on. It would appear to me that many different intelligence agencies have their hands in that group for a multiple reasons.