PATRIOTISM: HOW WE’RE LOSING YOUR YOUNG TO ISIS
RE:
https://foundationofpatriotism.org/p...young-to-isis/
Back in 2014, CNN published an article outlining exploring how ISIS was so successful in recruiting people from the United States to join their ranks. It is bewildering how young men from various places around America can come to a decision to join one of the most violent groups in recent memory. It can make a person question whether patriotism is dead or lingering on life support.
Certainly, we here at the National Foundation of Patriotism vehemently oppose this notion, but the idea bears exploration. To begin, it’s important to consider how groups like ISIS are finding success in reaching young recruits and motivating them to join. Some of the reasons we found in our research weren’t so surprising and included the following:
Tapping Into Identity Issues
It’s not shocking that ISIS uses social media and other tactics to appeal to young people who are often not only the most impressionable but also detached in many ways from other social groups. The propaganda that ISIS uses is not so different from other destructive causes throughout history in that the stories help create a sense of purpose, camaraderie and identity that can motivate these young people to join.
Religious Duty
Clearly, ISIS embraces radical and extremely violent Muslim ideals that certainly not every Muslim individual accepts. The message from ISIS is clear- it’s your religious duty to join us in our cause. Our jihad or holy war is written about and discussed with passionate language. This message appeals to the foundational identity of certain young Muslims.
Slick Propaganda
Many experts describe ISIS as having the most advanced and sophisticated propaganda machine of any terrorist organization. They produce Hollywood level videos of some of their most vile and violent acts and “successes” with coordination on their social media networks. Their messages are well distributed and very purposeful. Jihadist with Western accents aren’t accidental in delivering not so subtle messages that “you can join us too”.
HOW CAN PATRIOTISM COMBAT THIS?
Many Americans refuse to believe that our country’s best years are behind her, but with an increasing threat like ISIS present, it’s a fair question to consider what we’re doing at patriots to address the situation. Short terms measures like immigration restrictions and monitoring of certain individuals and groups can certainly be part of the answer, but there has to be more. It’s important to look at what we are doing as Americans to instill patriotism in each other and our young.
What is patriotism? How do you define patriotism? Does patriotism even matter anymore? These are excellent talking points to begin discussing with those around us. It’s not just about educating our young about patriotism although that’s a wonderful and important beginning. We have to begin to look at what we’re doing as individuals to promote patriotism around us.
Taking each of the points above and relating it to patriotism, it makes sense to consider how or even if we’re working to instill a sense of patriotism as part of our identity. Unfortunately, in recent years, patriotism seems to become more of an issue around tragedies like 9/11 rather than a more common issue. That’s a mistake on our part.
We’ve done so much to separate church and state that a person can wonder if it’s even ok to talk about patriotism and religion in the same sentence anymore, but that’s a mistake as well. Clearly ISIS has not problem combining violence and religion. If you define patriotism as beginning with a set of values that include things like goodness, truth, personal responsibility, sacrifice and love, then any religion on earth can endorse values like these. From there, it can be a church’s duty to promote patriotism among their followers.
Lastly, one could make an argument that patriotism takes a beating in the media. It’s clear that the negative sells. There’s nothing negative about believing in your country, and while that may not be as popular in terms of moving paper sales, we need to have more conversations about what’s right about our country, and begin to share, post and tweet about this. There’s plenty of material out there.
One of the foundational values of patriotism involves hope for the future. ISIS embraces sells death. They dress death up in religious clothing, but ISIS leaders recently set fire to some of their soldiers who “allowed” Ramadi to fall back into the Iraqi hands. There is no future in ISIS. There is no future in their ideals. No matter what your definition of patriotism is, it’s obvious that patriotism stands tall for the future of our country.