Wednesday, November 18, 2015

To fight ISIS, cease inflating its Ranks

Finally, they found enough non-Jews at the New York Times to form a team that would write a piece on a Middle Eastern subject. But look what happened when a rusted bunch that was kept out of practice for an extended period of time, tried to get back in the game. It wrote like high school beginners.

These are the editors who wrote “How to Fight ISIS,” a piece that was published on November 17, 2015. They begin by chastising the “divorced from reality … right-wing politicians in the United States and Europe [who wish] to declare war on the Islamic State.” But what do the editors do next? They describe an existing situation that is war-like; and they further suggest that the Congress should formalize that situation by debating “a legal framework” that will give it legal ground.

Aside from that, most everything else they say in response to their question “how to fight ISIS?” is nothing more than the description of what everyone in the field is already doing. In fact, like the right-wing politicians they chastise, they add precious little that's new to the debate.

The one thing that could have put them on the right track to writing an intelligent editorial, is the thing they mishandled by mutilating the reality of an Arab effort to help mitigate the troubles which are said to be caused by dissatisfied Muslim youths. The truth is that everywhere in the Arab world, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the mosques and the imams are teaching the young to be tolerant of others, and to contain their anger even when someone or something provokes them.

But how do the editors of the Times misrepresent that reality? Here is one offending statement they often make: “Muslim nations will simply have to stop paying for and politically enabling the mosques and the imams that fuel extremists and their virulent perversions of Islam.” This is a fiction which the editors follow with a statement that stands at odds with it: “Moderate Muslims need to redouble efforts to ensure that their version of a more tolerant and inclusive Islam prevails.” They are doing the right thing and don't need to redouble their effort.

Describing a distorted reality as do the editors of the New York Times, gives the impression that the problem is caused entirely by the Arabs “notably Saudi Arabia,” as they put it. That's what divorces them from reality, what makes it impossible for them to understand what's happening, and what renders them incapable of making a useful contribution to the debate.

The truth is that the young in the Arab world do not want foreigners to meddle in their affairs. At times, they feel that their leaders listen too much to foreigners and so, they rebel against them. They may attack foreigners, but only when the latter invade their territory or when a foreign embassy does something egregious such as letting its staff train the locals to spy on their country, or pay them to subvert it.

When you take those young Muslims out of the picture that's painted by the Times and other media of the same caliber, you are left with dissatisfied young Muslims who were born and raised in the Western countries against which they tend to commit violent acts. That's what's happening in Europe at this time, and what happens in America at times. The question to ask, therefore, is this: Why do these youngsters come to be like that?

Well, teachers and professionals who work with the young will tell you that the thing about losing “self esteem” is not a joke as some people say it is. This is a condition that is real among teenagers, even among some who are older. When a youngster feels like a failure, he does not get depressed right away because he'll say to himself, I may be a failure but I come from a good family or a good ethnic background or a good country to which I can go if things get worse.

He will, however, move into a depressed state if he feels like a failure, and is made to feel like a member of a broken family, a despised religion, a denigrated race or a failed country that's not worth returning to. He becomes a powder keg that a simple spark would explode. Youngsters in this condition that have access to firearms will kill other youngsters in a school, a movie theater or the street. Other youngsters will join a gang or if they can, will join the Caliphate. And they will commit the sort of horrific acts that no Arab youngster would ever commit.

And you know what the biggest crime in all of this is? It is that some media chains deliberately work to make young Muslims feel inferior; two of those being Fox News and CNN.