When will the U.S. launch the media campaign exposing ISIS and Baghdadi, the egomaniacal “caliph,” as the group that wants to return the Middle East to the 13th Century?
ISIS recruits think they are signing up for a perverted version of “Survivor” – a reality show that will be renewed for the rest of their short lives, featuring crucifixions of Christians and other minorities, beheadings of innocents, sex trafficking of women and children, kidnapping, smuggling, and other nefarious deeds. They believe this barbarism will ensure their place in heaven. It’s our job to make sure they know it will ensure their place in hell.
The way to do it is through the teachings of Muhammad himself.
Related: 20 Facts About Baghdadi, the Elusive ISIS Leader
It’s time to let the fools who think they’re joining a noble cause know exactly what they’re getting into. What’s missing from America’s new war on terror – or whatever the White House wishes to call it – is a great propaganda campaign that can neutralize ISIS’ use of social media, You Tube and the Internet, all western inventions that have been coopted by the barbarians.
If we’re fighting more than an army; if we’re fighting both an army and a war of ideas, we have to go after their ideas—break them down and use them as anti-recruiting measures to turn people away from ISIS.
This is a business decision that the Department of Defense should be all over. America’s top advertising agencies should bid for the contract(s) that the DOD should be sending out for bids. What would the campaign look like?
Related: Here’s How the Saudis Will Take on ISIS
- Short of killing Baghdadi, the campaign would paint Baghdadi as an enemy of Islam—a man who defies the very principles of Islam to serve himself to gain power, etc., etc. The principle here: The fish stinks from its head.
- Disrupt the internal dynamic of ISIS by planting the idea there are heretics among them—non-believers from different tribes who plan to undermine ISIS and who are biding their time.
- For the true believers in an Islamic caliphate (I would guess fewer than half) use the basic tenets of Islam to show how they will burn in hell for the unholy deeds they commit. Have a top imam or Ayatollah deliver the message.
- For those who have joined just to be part of a “group,” describe their lives as prisoners of the caliphate in vivid detail, i.e., you will be forced to sell your first-born daughter, who was conceived through rape, into sex slavery.
The Islamic community in the United States, the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere could all play a role in this campaign, appearing in these videos and speaking in their own Arabic dialects. To those who think ISIS is the cat’s meow, it’s time to Wag the Dog.
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