History: Jean Paul Marat (1743 -1793) and Ernesto Guevara (1928 -1967) were physicians (MD), who died participating in actions of revolution. A group of medical students, members of the „Weiße Rose“, lost their lives in 1943 in the resistance against Hitler; this was no revolution, indeed.
Recently Scott Alran wrote the very interesting paper: ISIS is a Revolution. All world-altering revolutions are born in danger and death, brotherhood and joy. How can this one be stopped?
Alran writes the following lines, including some new remarkable questions:
„During the past few months, two groups of medical students from the University [of Medical Sciences and Technology in Khartoum, Sudan] have fled to the Levant in order to join ISIS.The families of those students have had difficulties coping with their loss. It was almost grievousness of death. The students who left from our university… are wellfunded by their parents (higher middle class with multi-background). I find difficulty identifying the factors that led those smart, straight-A students, to [ISIS]. Could it be lack of identity? Could it be the universities’ fault? Could it be…the family’s lack of influence?“
Article ISIS is a Revolution AEON December 15, 2015
Hi Dr Karl,
I read the article you attached! then i read it again.
I just cannot believe, i dont know if I am just surprised or disgusted by the fact that, young scholarly minds are being deliberately polluted by the so called "revolution" and being put to death for the glory of nobody not even the mankind as a whole!
Sad!
First I do not think that there is a grassroot movement towards ISIS. Some young people, a very small number indeed, are attracted and are readey to give their live for the movement and this is significant. If you look at past revolutionary movements they were based on some kind of convincing ideology. Marxism was a significant intellectual movement. Where is ISIS's ideology. Simply a very old revamp version of Salafis/Wahhabis which are the most archaic forms of Islam. It is not going to be very attractive for the vast vast majority of young people.
George,
It is a mistake to call them fanatics because any committed militant of a social movement can be called fanatics. What the US head of the rebellions a bunc of fanatics? Should be search for universal distinctions between good fanatics and bad fanatics? This is not going to be fruitfull search. We like to honour some of our war heroes that gave their live? Where they fanatics? We have to understand the motivation of various type of ISIS militants. Understand you ennemies should be the moto. But to really understand young ISIS militants we have to consider as young normal human beings which just a few years earlier their recruitment were perfectly respectable young man in most cases. What is necessary to understand is their social circumstances, what render them vulnerable to recruitment? What was their social insatisfactions prior to recruitment? How did the recruitment proceed? How can we prevent the recruitment propaganda to reach these young respectible persons? There are so many such questions that need to be answer in order to begin to understand this problem.
George,
I can repeat the same question: Were the George Washinton a terrorist? Not today because he wan but during the rebellion, was he a terrorist? It is not productive to call them terrorists. We should call them as they call themself: ISIS militant or ISIS Jihadist. We should avoid charaterizing this situation as a conflict between the good guys and the bad guys.
Thank you all! I agree with Louis Brassard and Scott Atran, who writes: „Treating the Islamic State as merely a form of terrorism or violent extremism masks the menace."
My special question is: Why medical students join „ISIS“? Is it a flight from conformism to find more spiritual fulfilling – and more conformism?
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