War against ISIS is still an ideological war.

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Sep 1, 2014 at 15:02

Dear Dr Pipes, for as long as we engage with ISIS and similar forces militarily, we will never win. Everyone who dies among us will be called an infidel and will be dead anyway to speak for themselves. Everyone who dies among them will be called a martyr and will be used to misguide even more innocent people.   Military engagement with ISIS should be done only when necessary (for example to bring James Foley's killers to books).  Our war against fundamentalists is a war of ideology.  And it needs to be fought at an intellectual basis.  All free countries of the world (and, hopefully, an increasing fraction of the population of the Islamic societies) should speak against the methods used by the fundamentalists.  As long as our liberal leaders allow ISIS to hide behind religious sensibilities, violence by fundamentalists will keep increasing.  Whatever ISIS stands for contradicts whatever is good in Islam or any other religion.  We need to repeat this mantra a billion times a day or more.

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