ISIS Is Weak by Waleed Aly for The Project
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- Published on Friday, 20 November 2015 14:45
- Written by editor
Written by Waleed Aly and Tom Whitty (@twhittyer) for The Project (@theprojecttv) on Network Ten, Australia. 16 November 2015.
Transcript
INTRO
Waleed Aly: ISIL is weak. I know it doesn’t look like that right now, but it’s the truth. And they don’t want you to know it, which is why it is something we should talk about.
PACKAGE
Aly: When news broke that more than 130 people had been murdered in Paris, this is how ISIL responded.
ISIL PROPAGANDA VIDEO: A group of believers from the soldiers of the Caliphate set out targeting the capital of prostitution and vice, the lead carrier of the cross in Europe, Paris.
Aly: And really there’s no doubt this was an Islamist terrorist attack probably executed under ISIL’s flag. What we don’t know yet is if the attack was planned, ordered or funded by ISIL’s leaders in Syria. Because the problem is, this what ISIL do; they take credit for any act of terror on Western soil so that ISIL appear bigger and tougher than they actually are. They did the same thing last year with the shooting at Canada’s parliament, and when a bloke ran around New York with a hatchet attacking people, and again with the Sydney Siege.
7 NEWS UPSOT: There has been some suggestion that is an ISIS flag.
Aly: ISIL didn’t control these guys. They were DIY terrorists who recruited themselves, but ISIL don’t want you to know that. How do I know? Because ISIL told us that they don’t want you to know that in their monthly magazine. In October last year they wrote, "It is important that the killing becomes attributed to patrons of the Islamic State who have obeyed its leadership. This can easily be done with anonymity. Otherwise, crusader media makes such attacks appear to be random killings.”
Assoc Prof Nick O'Brien (Counter Terrorism at Charles Sturt University): Every time an attack happens and they do claim it, they're headline news around the world.
Aly: There’s a reason ISIL want to appear so powerful. The reality is all the land they control has been taken from weak enemies. They’re pinned down by airstrikes and just last weekend they lost a significant part of their territory.
Peter Jennings (Australian Strategic Policy Institute): They really don't have the capacity to hit back against the combat aircraft of the west.
Aly: ISIL don’t want you to know they would be quickly crushed if they ever faced a proper army on a real battlefield. They want you to fear them. They want you to get angry. They want all of us to become hostile. And here’s why; ISIL’s strategy is to split the world into two camps. It’s that black and white. Again we know this because they told us. Last year they declared, "there is no grayzone in this crusade against the Islamic State, … the world has split into two encampments, one for the people of faith, the other for the people of disbelief, all in preparation for the final Great War." They want to start World War III; a global war between Muslims and everyone else. That’s what they want to create. They want societies like France, and here in Australia, to turn on each other.
Bilal Rauf (Barrister and community advocate): We as a society, as a community need to be very mindful of maintaining and protecting our social cohesion, our sense of harmony, and standing together.
Aly: They want countries like ours to reject their Muslims AND vilify them.
Pauline Hanson (former Australian Federal MP): We need to look at the teachings of the Koran... it is about killing and beheading the non- believers.
Aly: ISIL leaders would be ecstatic to hear that since the atrocity in Paris, Muslims have been threatened and attacked in England , America , and here in Australia. Because this evil organisation has it in their heads that if they can make Muslims the enemy of the West, then Muslims in France, England, America and here in Australia will have nowhere to turn, but to ISIL. That’s exactly what they did in Iraq and now they want to go global. Saying that out loud; it’s both dumbfounding in its stupidity and blood-curdling in its barbarity. We’re all feeling a million raging emotions right now. I’m angry at these terrorists. I’m sickened by the violence. I’m crushed for the families that have been left behind. But I won’t be manipulated. We all need to come together. I know how that sounds. It’s a cliché. But it’s also true, because it’s exactly what ISIL doesn’t want. If you are a member of parliament (or has-been member of parliament), preaching hate at a time when we need love, you’re helping ISIL. They’ve told us that. If you’re a Muslim leader telling your community they have no place here, or a non-Muslim basically saying the same thing, you’re helping ISIL. They’ve told us that. Or whether you’re just someone with a Facebook or Twitter account firing off misguided missives of hate, you’re just helping ISIL. They’ve told us that. And I’m pretty sure, right now, none of us want to help these bastards.
