Does ISIS have any redeeming qualities?

[Nick Young]

Do they do anything positive for the people around them? :confusedshrug:

[LJJ]

Ever notice how a huge percentage of Muslim converts are gingers?

At least they are accepting of gingers.

http://i.imgur.com/V0VSsGY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/V5VxMl8.png

http://i.imgur.com/PhgZzdn.png

http://i.imgur.com/Lc96D4N.jpg





Any gingers on Ish?

[JohnFreeman]

Apart from killing other muslims?

[Nick Young]

Why were they able to get such a huge following without other muslims in the area putting up more of a resistance and telling them "hey, this shit isn't cool" at the grass roots development stages of the organization? Surely they must be doing somethings right.

[RidonKs]

Why were they able to get such a huge following without other muslims in the area putting up more of a resistance and telling them "hey, this shit isn't cool" at the grass roots development stages of the organization? Surely they must be doing somethings right.
are you actually and sincerely interested in learning about this? the question you're asking is not an easy one to answer... and it may well border on the impossible. people's lives are complicated and trying to understand the reasoning behind a huge decision like whether to support, oppose, or ignore a menacing and religiously extreme organization growing in power everywhere around you is tricky. it takes no small share of either research or skepticism since discarding possible hypotheses is your best tool.

nevertheless, the recent history of iraq and syria have a lot to do with popular iraqi/syrian perception of isis and its recent gains. it's also worth looking into how the iraqi and syrian populations feel about foreign intervention, from funding out of the gulf and the west over many years to the current american airstrikes to the possibility of a nato ground invasion.

i can offer you some sources, in podcast or article form, that you might like to take a look at. let me know.

[Inactive]

No. They attract psychopaths, and religious zealots who think they will win salvation by waging war with "the West". They hold non-militant populations captive, and kill dissenters. There's nothing good to say about them.

[RidonKs]

and just so people have an opportunity to gain some perspective out of this question, which is legitimate, try an anachronistic analogy

Does the National Socialist Party have any redeeming qualities?

well that question is much easier to answer since we have 50 years of scholarship and cultural heritage to rely on as a way to answer. and the answer is unquestionably yes for a whole host of reasons, most of them economic and nationalistic.

i suppose deciding whether or not they're redeeming or even redemptive is a value judgment that people will have to make for themselves. but deciding on the qualities themselves, which we can define as positive or beneficial in one way or another, is not difficult.

the nazis carried out a social revolution that made hitler among if not the most beloved leader in german history. and most of the population benefited enormously. not everybody of course. not the jews, not the gays, not the gypsies, etc.

but the nazis swept into power for a reason, which putting anti-semitism and aryan supremacy aside, can be accounted for by reference to their "redeeming qualities".

isis deserves an equally nuanced and balanced look. much more difficult again because it's happening right now.

[bagelred]

http://www.tpnn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ISIS-McCain-ad.jpg

[StephHamann]

Ever notice how a huge percentage of Muslim converts are gingers?

At least they are accepting of gingers.

http://i.imgur.com/V0VSsGY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/V5VxMl8.png

http://i.imgur.com/PhgZzdn.png

http://i.imgur.com/Lc96D4N.jpg





Any gingers on Ish?

Gingers are evil

[StephHamann]

and just so people have an opportunity to gain some perspective out of this question, which is legitimate, try an anachronistic analogy

Does the National Socialist Party have any redeeming qualities?

well that question is much easier to answer since we have 50 years of scholarship and cultural heritage to rely on as a way to answer. and the answer is unquestionably yes for a whole host of reasons, most of them economic and nationalistic.

i suppose deciding whether or not they're redeeming or even redemptive is a value judgment that people will have to make for themselves. but deciding on the qualities themselves, which we can define as positive or beneficial in one way or another, is not difficult.

the nazis carried out a social revolution that made hitler among if not the most beloved leader in german history. and most of the population benefited enormously. not everybody of course. not the jews, not the gays, not the gypsies, etc.

but the nazis swept into power for a reason, which putting anti-semitism and aryan supremacy aside, can be accounted for by reference to their "redeeming qualities".

isis deserves an equally nuanced and balanced look. much more difficult again because it's happening right now.



ISIS is on a level with Pol Pot

batshit insanity

[LJJ]

isis deserves an equally nuanced and balanced look. much more difficult again because it's happening right now.

No, I think that is fair and balanced and most people would probably agree. ISIS = at least as bad as the nazis, probably a bit worse.

[RidonKs]

ISIS is on a level with Pol Pot

batshit insanity
isis is bad but they're nowhere near as powerful nor are they anywhere near as culpable for anywhere near as many deaths as pol pot was. and if we're being completely honest, the khmer rouge were only responsible for a fraction of the deaths that kennedy and johnson and nixon were responsible for in the exact same part of the world only a decade before.

again, that's only true if we're being honest.

two questions here though; how bad is isis and how much harm does isis cause?

a similar distinction can be found in this question; who is the better person, the murder suicide torturer who takes the life of a single human being in as horrifying a fashion as possible, or the serial killer who puts a single bullet into the brain of 100 different people?

isis is a threat, not a global threat but certainly a regional threat. how bad of a threat is it?

[tomtucker]

Ever notice how a huge percentage of Muslim converts are gingers?

At least they are accepting of gingers.

[I




Any gingers on Ish?

you are right !
.
but a red beard is a symbol of courage according to islam

[RidonKs]

No, I think that is fair and balanced and most people would probably agree. ISIS = at least as bad as the nazis, probably a bit worse.
you might be right. i wouldn't take any major exception to that statement.

see my post above for a bit more elaboration.

[Nick Young]

What are some positive things that ISIS has done for the local community?

[MavsSuperFan]

well there are a lot of extreme muslims living in the west that have gone to ISIS. According to hagel about 100 americans have left america to fight for ISIS.

Its better they leave the west than do boston bombings.

Eg. Imagine the tsarnaev brothers leaving america to go fight for ISIS and dying in iraq or syria and not bombing boston.

I saw on the news a couple of american citizens have died in iraq or syria after joining isis. those are guys that wont be able to commit terrorism here.

to summarize the redeeming quality of ISIS is that they are causing extremist muslims to leave the west, thus lowering the risk of them attacking the west.

[Rodmantheman]

http://www.tpnn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ISIS-McCain-ad.jpg

The one on the left joined ISIS before getting killed by the Syrian army. The fat guy next to McCain quit lol.

[Trollsmasher]

they kill muslims

they are anti-american

that's about it

[kNIOKAS]

No, I think that is fair and balanced and most people would probably agree. ISIS = at least as bad as the nazis, probably a bit worse.
It won't get you far to try weigh in some political structures or regimes. Similarly, it's pretty useless try to argue what is better - five stabbings and two shootings or three shootings and two stranglings. It's of no use.