What is the best strategy to fight ISIL/Al Qaeda/Taliban/Boko Haram/Al-Shabaab etc

[Anonymous]

How do we rid the earth of Islamic Extremists?

ISIL
Al Qaeda
Taliban
Boko Haram
al-Shabaab

What is the common denominator? All followers of Mohammed?

I listened to the speech and Obama does not have a strategy that I think will work. Bombing from the air and waiting for Arabs to help?


To other Muslims what suggestions do you have to stop these Islamic Extremists?

[Anonymous]

This will take a while but they need to change how all of those countries indoctrinate their students in the school, from the very young all the way through their teenagers.

Until that changes there is nothing anyone can do.

Look how quick and effective Hitler was with his youth programs.

Look how effective the schools in Germany were at changing that trajectory after WWII.

The leadership in that part of the world has to decide to teach their children love and tolerance instead of killing, maiming and destroying any person that does not subscribe to whatever particular version of Islam they are following.

Until they start their the problem will never go away.

[jsteele]

The common denominator is that all the groups follow Wahhabi Islam. It will be very hard to get rid of them, maybe impossible. There is a long list of legitimate grievances among most Muslims. Nothing the US has proposed will reduce that list. In many ways, US military action will simply confirm many of the grievances and end up making the situation worse. There are few good actions the US could take and none of them are politically acceptable. The politically acceptable actions aren't good, but that's all available given the political realities. So, Obama has a strategy that will make things worse, but not as bad as some of the alternative strategies.

[Anonymous]

For more than two centuries, Wahhabism has been Saudi Arabia's dominant faith. It is an austere form of Islam that insists on a literal interpretation of the Koran. Strict Wahhabis believe that all those who don't practice their form of Islam are heathens and enemies. Critics say that Wahhabism's rigidity has led it to misinterpret and distort Islam, pointing to extremists such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Wahhabism's explosive growth began in the 1970s when Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools (madrassas) and mosques from Islamabad to Culver City, California.

The Wahhabis dominate in Saudi Arabia, with also significant influence and presence in United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait. ...

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:For more than two centuries, Wahhabism has been Saudi Arabia's dominant faith. It is an austere form of Islam that insists on a literal interpretation of the Koran. Strict Wahhabis believe that all those who don't practice their form of Islam are heathens and enemies. Critics say that Wahhabism's rigidity has led it to misinterpret and distort Islam, pointing to extremists such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Wahhabism's explosive growth began in the 1970s when Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools (madrassas) and mosques from Islamabad to Culver City, California.

The Wahhabis dominate in Saudi Arabia, with also significant influence and presence in United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait. ...

Note that "madrassas" is simply Arabic for "schools". Americans have come to understand this word as referring to school run by Islamic extremists. That is not the correct meaning.

It is also worth noting that while Wahhabi Islam is the root of al-Qaida, IS, and the "official" Islam of Saudi Arabia, those branches diverged a long ways back. While they have the same root, they have significant differences between them. You also didn't mention Qatar which is also dominated by Wahhabis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do we rid the earth of Islamic Extremists?

I think it's the wrong question. To me the question is how do we ensure that extremists find no purchase in Muslim lands?

First let me say that I can't speak to the African groups. But taking ISIL, Al Qaeda, and Taliban, the driving factor is not religion but political representation and independence from foreign control, aspirations that are held by a wide population. The extremists build their ranks by picking off the worst from these populations, and they move through territory because the people don't like them but won't and can't fight them.

In the long run, the answer to the extremists is to address the political concerns of the general population. Then they can find no purchase within the people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do we rid the earth of Islamic Extremists?

ISIL
Al Qaeda
Taliban
Boko Haram
al-Shabaab

What is the common denominator? All followers of Mohammed?

I listened to the speech and Obama does not have a strategy that I think will work. Bombing from the air and waiting for Arabs to help?

One of the common denominators is failed US policy, not religious ideology.

Bin Laden was backed by the CIA during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and formed Al Qaeda when CIA backing went away.

Thank Bush 1 & 2 for ISIL. Bush 1 for backing Saddam Hussein and Bush 2 for invading Iraq the second time around and creating this hot mess:

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/10/347391620/islamic-state-was-fueled-by-epic-american-failure-in-iraq-reporter-says

There is no cutting the head of the gorgon. It doesn't matter if it's Obama or any future president. There will always be extremists. Welcome to the brave new world.

[Anonymous]

Cut our ties with Israel.

[Anonymous]

Some suggestions

1. We need to stop the Saudi 1% financing of muslim schools in other countries. TO do that we need to stop Saudi travel to the West/Europe/South America until they restore human rights for women and stop funding madrassas focused on Wahabism , the terrorist schools.

2. We need to focus our technology on energy independence from Middle East. We should impose a "Human Rights" tax all oil that comes from countries that continue to condone human rights violations of women.


How the Saudi financing has worked from a cable posted on wiki-leaks ...

Hunt refers to a “network of Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith mosques and madrassahs” being strengthened through an influx of “charity” which originally reached organisations “such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Al-Khidmat foundation”. Portions of these funds would then be given away to clerics “in order to expand these sects’ presence” in a relatively inhospitable yet “potentially fruitful recruiting ground”.

Outlining the process of recruitment for militancy, the cable describes how “families with multiple children” and “severe financial difficulties” were generally being exploited for recruitment purposes. Families first approached by “ostensibly ‘charitable’” organisations would later be introduced to a “local Deobandi or Ahl-i-Hadith maulana” who would offer to educate the children at his madrassah and “find them employment in the service of Islam”. “Martyrdom” was also “often discussed”, with a final cash payment to the parents. “Local sources claim that the current average rate is approximately Rs 500,000 (approximately USD 6,500) per son,” the cable states.

Children recruited would be given age-specific indoctrination and would eventually be trained according to the madrassah teachers’ assessment of their inclination “to engage in violence and acceptance of jihadi culture” versus their value as promoters of Deobandi or Ahl-i-Hadith sects or recruiters, the cable states.

http://fpif.org/wikileaks_saudi-financed_madrassas_more_widespread_in_pakistan_than_thought/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we rid the earth of Islamic Extremists?

I think it's the wrong question. To me the question is how do we ensure that extremists find no purchase in Muslim lands?

First let me say that I can't speak to the African groups. But taking ISIL, Al Qaeda, and Taliban, the driving factor is not religion but political representation and independence from foreign control, aspirations that are held by a wide population. The extremists build their ranks by picking off the worst from these populations, and they move through territory because the people don't like them but won't and can't fight them.

In the long run, the answer to the extremists is to address the political concerns of the general population. Then they can find no purchase within the people.

This sounds right.

[Anonymous]

What is also relevant is why we seem to see much more in the way of extremism among Muslims over the past several decades.

For example, the first major act of terrorism that I recall which caught the attention of the world was during the Munich Olympics in 1972.

So terrorism/extremism among Muslims is not something that has always been around.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:What is also relevant is why we seem to see much more in the way of extremism among Muslims over the past several decades.

For example, the first major act of terrorism that I recall which caught the attention of the world was during the Munich Olympics in 1972.

So terrorism/extremism among Muslims is not something that has always been around.

That may be the first major act of terrorism that you recall, but terrorism is almost as old as human history. In that region alone, many of Israel's eventual leaders were terrorists. Also, Munich was undertaken by Palestinians. There were Christians among them. Their commander had a Christian father and a Jewish mother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is also relevant is why we seem to see much more in the way of extremism among Muslims over the past several decades.

For example, the first major act of terrorism that I recall which caught the attention of the world was during the Munich Olympics in 1972.

So terrorism/extremism among Muslims is not something that has always been around.

That may be the first major act of terrorism that you recall, but terrorism is almost as old as human history. In that region alone, many of Israel's eventual leaders were terrorists. Also, Munich was undertaken by Palestinians. There were Christians among them. Their commander had a Christian father and a Jewish mother.

A practicing Christian or born?

Does anyone ask this of Islamic terrorist? The 9/11 attackers were drinking and going to strip clubs -- not exactly devout, yet we call them islamic terrorists.

When it's a Christian, we always look for an excuse to distance ourselves from them. Oh, he's an extremist, radical fringe, he has perverted Christianity. But when it's a Muslim, we call him devout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is also relevant is why we seem to see much more in the way of extremism among Muslims over the past several decades.

For example, the first major act of terrorism that I recall which caught the attention of the world was during the Munich Olympics in 1972.

So terrorism/extremism among Muslims is not something that has always been around.

I remembers the IRA, 1969-2005

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is also relevant is why we seem to see much more in the way of extremism among Muslims over the past several decades.

For example, the first major act of terrorism that I recall which caught the attention of the world was during the Munich Olympics in 1972.

So terrorism/extremism among Muslims is not something that has always been around.

I remembers the IRA, 1969-2005

I was under the impression that the IRA were Catholics, not Muslims. So I'm sorry but. . .what is your point?