Mayor Peduto Wants The Syrian Refugees To Come To Pittsburgh (money, pay)

[BigPizzaHutFan]

Young men of any religion, race, or creed become radicalized when they are denied community, family, and economic advancement.

The average Iraqi jihadi is a 27 year old Sunni who came of age in an American-occupied nation being ruled by a sectarian Shiite puppet government. This is why they're mad at us and the west in general.

When you offer young men community, opportunity, and the chance to start a family, they don't radicalize. They have no reason to.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BigPizzaHutFan

(also they have absolutely no interest in us "becoming like them," no idea where you read that.)

Yes. Al Qaeda wants to establish a Caliphate which covers the entire Muslim world (and arguably the entire world, but always looked at it as a struggle which would take generations to achieve, making them not much different from revolutionary socialists. ISIS is really a death cult - they want to cause the apocalypse.

During the last years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Islamic State’s immediate founding fathers, by contrast, saw signs of the end times everywhere. They were anticipating, within a year, the arrival of the Mahdi—a messianic figure destined to lead the Muslims to victory before the end of the world. McCants says a prominent Islamist in Iraq approached bin Laden in 2008 to warn him that the group was being led by millenarians who were “talking all the time about the Mahdi and making strategic decisions” based on when they thought the Mahdi was going to arrive. “Al-Qaeda had to write to [these leaders] to say ‘Cut it out.’ ”

For certain true believers—the kind who long for epic good-versus-evil battles—visions of apocalyptic bloodbaths fulfill a deep psychological need. Of the Islamic State supporters I met, Musa Cerantonio, the Australian, expressed the deepest interest in the apocalypse and how the remaining days of the Islamic State—and the world—might look. Parts of that prediction are original to him, and do not yet have the status of doctrine. But other parts are based on mainstream Sunni sources and appear all over the Islamic State’s propaganda. These include the belief that there will be only 12 legitimate caliphs, and Baghdadi is the eighth; that the armies of Rome will mass to meet the armies of Islam in northern Syria; and that Islam’s final showdown with an anti-Messiah will occur in Jerusalem after a period of renewed Islamic conquest.

The Islamic State has attached great importance to the Syrian city of Dabiq, near Aleppo. It named its propaganda magazine after the town, and celebrated madly when (at great cost) it conquered Dabiq’s strategically unimportant plains. It is here, the Prophet reportedly said, that the armies of Rome will set up their camp. The armies of Islam will meet them, and Dabiq will be Rome’s Waterloo or its Antietam.

“Dabiq is basically all farmland,” one Islamic State supporter recently tweeted. “You could imagine large battles taking place there.” The Islamic State’s propagandists drool with anticipation of this event, and constantly imply that it will come soon. The state’s magazine quotes Zarqawi as saying, “The spark has been lit here in Iraq, and its heat will continue to intensify … until it burns the crusader armies in Dabiq.” A recent propaganda video shows clips from Hollywood war movies set in medieval times—perhaps because many of the prophecies specify that the armies will be on horseback or carrying ancient weapons.

Now that it has taken Dabiq, the Islamic State awaits the arrival of an enemy army there, whose defeat will initiate the countdown to the apocalypse. Western media frequently miss references to Dabiq in the Islamic State’s videos, and focus instead on lurid scenes of beheading. “Here we are, burying the first American crusader in Dabiq, eagerly waiting for the remainder of your armies to arrive,” said a masked executioner in a November video, showing the severed head of Peter (Abdul Rahman) Kassig, the aid worker who’d been held captive for more than a year. During fighting in Iraq in December, after mujahideen (perhaps inaccurately) reported having seen American soldiers in battle, Islamic State Twitter accounts erupted in spasms of pleasure, like overenthusiastic hosts or hostesses upon the arrival of the first guests at a party.

The Prophetic narration that foretells the Dabiq battle refers to the enemy as Rome. Who “Rome” is, now that the pope has no army, remains a matter of debate. But Cerantonio makes a case that Rome meant the Eastern Roman empire, which had its capital in what is now Istanbul. We should think of Rome as the Republic of Turkey—the same republic that ended the last self-identified caliphate, 90 years ago. Other Islamic State sources suggest that Rome might mean any infidel army, and the Americans will do nicely.

[fat lou]

Originally Posted by BigPizzaHutFan

You missed two posts above yours that answered every question you have in detail.

(also they have absolutely no interest in us "becoming like them," no idea where you read that.)

So ISIS and other radical Islamists have no interest in seeing non-Muslims convert to Islam? Really?

[norcider]

Who let Hank Hill in here?

[BigPizzaHutFan]

Originally Posted by fat lou

So ISIS and other radical Islamists have no interest in seeing non-Muslims convert to Islam? Really?

Contrary to your own beliefs about how awesome you are, no, ISIS has no interest in hanging out with you. Other people have made posts about how all of this works, in this very thread. You should read them.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by sealie

Where in Pittsburgh would even be a target? We're small, we're boring, you can't terrorize the nation by taking out the Duquesne incline. More likely a sleeper cell would just plot an attack some 250 miles southeast of here. They like dramatic tv. There's nothing here that fits the bill except maybe Heinz Field on game day. Maybe. Probably not.

A stadium, restuarant or concert venue has proven to be a popular target.

[Merge]

Originally Posted by fat lou

So ISIS and other radical Islamists have no interest in seeing non-Muslims convert to Islam? Really?

Do you really think that ISIS was attempting to convert France to Islam with targeted bombings? Is it also your theory that they are making it easier to convince more moderate Muslims to embrace their caliphate by driving them out of their homes and making them flee the country?

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by UKyank

A stadium, restuarant or concert venue has proven to be a popular target.

Bingo. And security has supposedly been raised here and at all venues across the nation and beyond.

[fat lou]

Originally Posted by eschaton

ISIS's literal goal is to cause the Muslim apocalypse to happen, which they think requires them to fight a Christian army on the ground in Syria. Thus anything they can do to either goad western powers into direct military intervention, or to up western distrust of Muslims (which will further aid in recruitment for them) is a win.

I don't think they specifically want western powers to not accept immigrants though. Arguably the current situation for them is a "heads I win, tails you lose" scenario. But to the degree that the western powers react, particularly with crackdowns which are seen as anti-Muslim, it's all gravy for them.

Their own statements are shot through with vitriol for "crusaders" and "pagans" and "non-believers." That's apparently what their whole problem with the West is about.
But you say that if we fight them militarily they also win? So these people will pull off attacks on us. If we fight them they win, if we start to distrust Muslims they win. All right, so how do we beat these people, then? Just keep taking in people from the Middle East and hoping that it all blows over? So if we just show our love for Muslims all of this will just go away? We took in the Tsaernaev brothers. We took in the 9-11 hijackers. That didn't exactly make them love us, did it?

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by fat lou

Their own statements are shot through with vitriol for "crusaders" and "pagans" and "non-believers." That's apparently what their whole problem with the West is about.
But you say that if we fight them militarily they also win? So these people will pull off attacks on us. If we fight them they win, if we start to distrust Muslims they win. All right, so how do we beat these people, then? Just keep taking in people from the Middle East and hoping that it all blows over? So if we just show our love for Muslims all of this will just go away? We took in the Tsaernaev brothers. We took in the 9-11 hijackers. That didn't exactly make them love us, did it?

This^^^^^

Some people can't even learn by horrific examples, unfortunately.