Ways in which Terrorism Helps Radical Islam

Submitted by Stu Fagin (United States), Jan 11, 2015 at 18:51

All of Daniel Pipes' examples of how terrorism harms radical Islam are on target. But, there are two sides to this coin. I suggest two ways in which terrorism helps radical Islam.

(1) Non-violent Islamism is made to appear more respectable by its contrast with violent Islamism. In essence, this is a playing out of the good cop, bad cop routine. It is predictable that European governments will look to strengthen the role played by non-violent Islamist organizations as a way to control their violent counterparts. For example, in Paris, the scope of Islam-based civil authorities (and Sharia writ) will be expanded in the no-go zones in return for assurances that they will work with authorities in hunting down and controlling terrorists. Similar arrangements will be made in London with non-violent Islamists groups in return for information regarding the multitude of international terror groups based there.

(2) The self-censorship of western media will likely be heightened after the mega-posing of world leaders, complete with Parisian synagogue photo-ops, is over. Few institutions will be willing to endanger their personnel for the sake of covering stories critical of Islamic culture. It will be interesting to see if Charlie Hebdu, is reconstituted in its former satirical form, or if another journal is created to fill the void. I doubt one will.

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