[ by Charles Cameron — the violence, the sheer cruelty, is stupefying, true, and frequently misunderstood ]
.
Example:
ISIS crucifies 5 more men in the city of al-Mayadeen- it has now crucified 8 people there in a week. #TerrorFacts http://t.co/SzwJg1IJYa
— Think AgainTurn Away (@ThinkAgain_DOS) July 1, 2015
**
What I’d like to do is to reverse the idea that saying IS does horrific things will dissuade those vulnerable to its messaging from joining..
Or as JM Berger puts it:
It's dangerously wrong to assume ISIS doesn't understand how people will react to its atrocities.
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) February 4, 2015
**
Roger Griffin of Oxford Brookes University notes that on the way in, video imagery of violence may be attractive:
They have actually succeeded in creating an image for themselves, which to a generation of people who spend a lot of their time in virtual reality can actually make it quite sort of acceptable to enjoy the spectacle of slaughter and bloodshed and crass heroism”
Attempts to “counter” the violence in IS tweets by commenting on how violent IS is may backfire — an idea that State’s counter-narrative mavens [see example above] may want to take on board.
On the way out, however, the violence may have been all too real, and no way glamorous in viscerally experienced reality. Prof. Griffin again:
Some of the Muslims coming back from fighting in Syria aren’t going to be more jihadist than the jihadi and trying to blow things up, but would have actually seen slaughter, cruelty, and the nauseating aspect of violence. They could be wonderfully used, if used sensitively, as part of a counter narrative
**
Sources for DoubleQuote:
Simon Cottee: Why would anyone join ISIL? Samar Yazbek: Syria has been hung, drawn and quartered
