I generally do not comment news, as it’s not the purpose of this blog and I believe news is news and should not influence our personal actions beyond what we can influence to alleviate pain of suffering people or to make a positive contribution to the world that surrounds us. However, this article on Paul Jorion’s blog caught my attention. Although it’s in French, you can use Microsoft or Google Translator to get the text in English (I could not make the direct link to work… weird, since it’s a WordPress blog).
However, the article caught my attention because it talks about marketing and planning. Not from a nice organization of course, but because this nasty and dangerous organization use good marketing and leverage sound leadership, they’re having the results they expect, and this is what should scare us on one side and that should make us good on the other side because we can fight marketing with marketing to get positive results that undermine their results.
So the questions that need to be answered (and are in the article) are the following:
- What: What is the goal of Daech and Al-Qaeda? Establishing a caliphate. What they are succeeding to do in Iraq and Syria so far (the famous « Islamic State »).
- Who: Who do they need to do that? As many people as possible to join their new caliphate.
- Where: in Europe, where there’s a lot of Muslims among the low income population, who more often than not, suffer from xenophobia, and are easier to be convinced that their place is not in Europe that will never completely tolerate them but with Daech and Al-Qaeda in fundamentalism.
- How: by targeting liberal intellectuals, Jews and traitors, meaning Muslims who are serving the pagans and unfaithful to Allah.
By targeting Charlie Hebdo, they were not killing anti-Muslim people, no, they were targeting the French society in its entirety, to create hostility against the Jihad and overall against Muslims. Therefore, they wanted to create a sentiment of likability with those who are rejected by society and who could see a way to become somebody in the new world that jihadists are building.
By building walls and accepting their rules of the game, we are reinforcing them. What needs to be done (easier said than done, but everybody can start at their own pace) is to understand our neighbors and built a society that accept differences, or actually a society that builds on differences, to create a unique melting pot. Many people (Muslims or not) push for a reform of Islam, and I really think all politicians across the globe should listen and take action. The battle is not over yet, but if we do not change the rules of it, it will be a lost occasion to accelerate a much needed change of era for peace and good.
Every coin has 2 sides: heads and tails. Every tough situation has 2 sides: blame and learning. It’s interesting how a majority of people tend to blame while very few learn. I tend to think it’s our education system or just our education who’s to blame, however we can learn and change. Blame is energy flowing out of our own lives. Learning is energy flowing into our lives. It should be a no-brainer which side to choose. However it’s easier to blame than to learn, and we fall into the blame trap while following the path of least resistance.