The Medium Is This Message

"The message generally is, 'Your life will be better than it is in whichever Western country you live in."
"[ISIS] says they need women to make families and raise children who can carry on the same interpretation of Islam that they're practising."
Melanie Smith, researcher, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, London

"[I swear to Allah] there's nothing more beautiful than bringing fear into the hearts of the [non-believers] by attacking them where they think they are safest."
"Follow the example of your brothers from Woolwich, Texas and Boston ... Have no fear as Allah is always with the Believers [killing of a British soldier in London; Fort Hood, Texas mass shooting; Boston Marathon bombing, respectively]." 
"If you cannot make it to the battlefield, then bring the battlefield to yourself. Be sincere and be a [jihadist] wherever you may be."
"We are created to be mothers and wives -- as much as the western society has warped your views on this with a hidden feminist mentality."
Aqsa Mahmood, ISIS wife, propagandist extraordinaire

There is a line of thought that democratic societies have taken care of just about everything, removing as much stress in peoples' lives as conceivable through the moderation of liberal societal constructs, a general aura of social tranquility, law and order guaranteeing security, plentiful employment to be had, and great social welfare benefits along with an egalitarian attitude, and an emphasis on acquiring the good things in life that money can buy. And then there is the anomie suffered by the dissatisfied.

Leaving the spiritual element in peoples' lives unsatisfied, in a society where one is free to worship god, or not, as the inclination may be. There are just so many people who live in harmony with others it is all too boring and lacking in tension and excitement for others for whom the status quo of reliability of outcome is insufficient unto their day. And they are the ones who gravitate to the challenge of another way of life; one starkly in contrast to the one they reject.

A young Scottish-bred and -educated woman by the name of Aqsa Mahmood, known for her propagandic gushing about the value of living the life of an ISIS camp follower -- or more correctly, the wife of an Islamic State mujahadeen in the most traditional of Islamist ways demanding that a woman be modestly and completely covered, remain in the home, raise children, cook and clean and harbour no other aspirations -- insists it is all deeply satisfying.

From having the world and all its choices at one's fingertips, to spurning those aspirations to find one's life and perhaps career in any number of professions appealing to one's individual taste and proclivities, to revelling in the backwardness of traditional Islam where women are cloistered and held in a similar esteem of chattel or cattle. Hardline Islam is what appealed to this young woman, as an Islamist "sister", and she calls out through social media to others of her potential ilk.

She bemoans the fact that she took it for granted that modest Islamist cover-up garments would be readily available in Syria, when she left Britain to become a wife for a jihadi, finding nothing appropriate in Syria where the Islamic State caliphate has ensconced itself. "The biggest mistake I made was not bringing enough jilbabs and niqabs because I presumed I may be able to find Islamic clothing here but honestly that is next to impossible ... So sisters please try and bring your three-layer niqabs jilbas and khimars [abayas] from back home."

Is that not the ultimate absurdity? In Britain or in Scotland such Islamist garments are readily available to British-Muslim women, whereas in Syria, a Muslim country in the heart of an Islamic geography such garments are not to be found other than inadequate facsimiles presumably inappropriate for the use of chaste young Muslim women. While Islam in much of the Middle East has no requirement for women to conceal themselves from the lustful gaze of men, in the West it is an imperative.

The 20-year-old's parents, after reporting her missing discovered her to have travelled to Syria as a 'radicalized' Scottish Muslim who found her calling through Internet proselytization and avid reading of radical Islam. She has documented the satisfaction of her daily life within the bosom of ISIS, and has been enthusiastically inciting other Muslims who read her Tumblr and Twitter messages to heed the call of pure Islam, and to attack non-Muslims and their values wherever they happen to live.

"We've seen girls from the U.K. that have been there since February 2013, and are now acting as recruiters writing online blogs and diaries. So if they're interested in going, that's where they'll get the information [Online blogs like Ms. Mahmood's and diaries by ISIS members from western countries]."
"If they've moved and they've become unhappy with what's happening in the Islamic State, then they're not going to put that on social media."
Melanie Smith, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, London