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Michaelis Research Paper

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Coordinated attacks perpetrated by the Islamic State (IS) movement in the heart of Paris on Nov. 13 last week shocked France and the global community.

Governments across the world quickly condemned these heinous acts against innocent civilians and warned that the fight against religious extremism, IS forming its latest strain, was far from over.

Aside from military means to counteract extremist operations, many wonder if the ideological battle can also be won.

The ideological battle entails preventing people from being seduced by extreme and pernicious ideologies that inspire them to commit acts of terrorism.

As IS rapidly expands its presence in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia, the importance of the ideological …show more content…

Michaelis ventured into reading books and listening to lectures concerning racial equality from African-American leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. This process marked the beginning of Michaelis'€™ own self de-radicalization.

During a recent discussion about the intersection of knowledge, technology and counterterrorism at the Declara office in Silicon Valley, I asked Michaelis what made him leave the racist skinhead organization that he had helped establish.

Through a hoarse voice, he said, '€œcompassion is very important to me. But also, I have always been curious and I'€™ve always wanted to learn other stuff. That is what I think made me leave.'€

The Michaelis case is telling, for it illustrates that it is possible even for leaders of extreme organizations, not just their followers, to experience a complete cognitive shift by cultivating their curiosities.

Furthermore, extremist groups tend to be obsessed with the control and monopoly of information. Ingrained in their teachings is the idea that they hold all the truth and information that one will ever need. Since the truth is with them, others surely possess nothing but …show more content…

Getting information or knowledge from other sources is strictly prohibited and often penalized. IS, for example, established a fatwa (edict) Department to codify its own Islamic teachings and made the Department'€™s publications the only permitted source of reference in Islamic jurisprudence. It has also employed a religious police called Hisbah to enforce its draconian teachings.

IS brainwashes and molds its subjects into, as Thomas Aquinas warned, people of one book '€” homo uniuslibri. In this already not-so-distant dystopia, IS plans to dissuade people from reading other books that fall out of line with its teachings. IS will try to create a parochial atmosphere where everything is observed and interpreted from only one lens.

When this intellectual insularity is compounded with a penchant for violence, the only plausible outcome is the production of bigoted and enslaved individuals who have only hammers. And for those who have only hammers, everyone else who contradicts their one-sided ideology appears to be a false idol waiting to be

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