May 7, 2015

The Lure of ISIS

By Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld

The Islamic States attraction to young Muslim females and males

continues to mystify Westerners, especially non-Muslims. They
wonder, Why would educated and mostly well-off young Westerners be
willing to join ISIS? This follows by search for the ubiquitous root-causes.
Thus lack of assimilation, alienation, religious piety, mental illness,
boredom, and, of course, poverty and unemployment are mentioned.
These, however, fail to explain why a young person would leave a family,
the relative comfort and safety he or she enjoys in Australia, Canada,
France, Germany, Denmark or the United States, not to mention other
places in favor of the repressive, violent ISIS.

What makes ISIS so attractive that thousands have travelled to die for it in
the Middle East, and thousands others follow its dictates wherever they
are or sent to? Its jihad, stupid!

Evidently, ISIS has in its ranks marketers who figured out how best to
recruit young Muslims to fight for the radical jihad against the infidels. ISIS
propagandists are sowing the jihad message in the fertile ground of
already radicalized Muslims in the Westground that was fertilized over
the past five decades by Islamist indoctrination supplied by preachers in
Mosques and Islamic centers, funded with billions of dollars from Saudi
Arabia and the Gulf States, and encouraged by the success of celebrated
jihadist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and al Qaeda. As we witness with
growing alarm, the jihad seeds are now producing deadly human weapons
eager to kill and die on behalf of Allah.
ISIS employs the familiar and often admired brand of jihad and markets it
successfully, especially to young Muslims, through social media in a
language familiar to every young person today. It spares no funding for its
media campaign, using the most sophisticated technologies to attract an
audience and evade efforts to curtail their online activities.

ISIS recruitment succeeds because its videos and messages offer young
Muslims incredibly exciting and fulfilling sacrifice for the cause, i.e. jihad.
Instead of scoring high by eliminating targets on their PlayStations and
Xboxes, they can use real weapons to eliminate the enemies of Allah. All
their material needs are taken care of by their new family of martyrs; a
salary and a husband or a wife are promised while serving in Allahs
cause. Moreover, a reward is guaranteed in the afterlife, if they kill and die
for Allah.

ISIS provides potential recruits with heavy doses of alluring propaganda

and disinformation, using websites and other social media and expensive
sophisticated print publications. Once recruited, ISIS controls all
information inputs to its fighters, does away with those who disagree with
the leadership, and puts to death those who leave or are known to wish to
do so. Since most foreign recruits come from open societies they are
fooled into believing they can run away. But once they fall into ISIS trap,
they are further indoctrinated to believe there is no place to hide.

How does the West counter this psychological warfare? Judging by ISISs
growing influence in the U.S. and elsewhere, it does not.

The U.S. State Department Twitter account/site (Think Again, Turn Away)
is devoted to talking young Muslims out of jihadist causes. Rather than
speaking to them as Muslims, it mainly spouts the U.S. position that
jihadis are not Muslims. Instead, they are portrayed as violent extremists
who have perverted religion. Very little is said that challenges the political
disinformation and lies that ISIS spreads on the Internet and print
publications.

Think Again, Turn Away was attacked in September of 2014 in the New
York Daily News and Time Magazine, among other places, for engaging
ISIS tweeters rather than refuting what they had to say. Its critics call it
an embarrassment that emboldens Islamists.

Think Again, Turn Away seems as the only tool the U.S. publicly uses in
its psychological warfare against ISIS recruiting. Classical definitions of
psychological warfare would classify the program as carrying out white
PSYOPS. The white variety includes the Voice of America and public
diplomacy. What ISIS is perpetrating against us and potential recruits is
referred to as gray or black PSYOPS. These terms cover propaganda
and disinformation.

Given the current state of affairs, it is clear the U.S. and the rest are failing
at stemming ISIS recruiting. And they will continue to fail as long as they
refuse to identify ISIS and other jihadists ideology that calls to kill and die
for Allah. The knowledge-based understanding of the enemy that made
PSYOPS successful against communism during the Cold War wouldnt
work now because the West prefers to remain ignorant of the ideology
behind Political Islam and its willingness to understand and even excuse
Islamic violence.

Success against ISIS and all other jihadis recruitment will be possible only
when the U.S. president and his administration will acknowledge and
condemn the ideology behind the global movement of Political Islam (an
oxymoron) that keeps feeding disinformation to non-Muslims while
nurturing radicalism among young Muslims everywhere.