Issue #4 · November 23rd, 2015 · View in your browser

*This is going to be a bit of a special issue to try and make sense of all the BS we've been reading about the Paris attacks. *

1. The origins of ISIS

If you are fed up with all of this and only want to read one thing, make it Martin Chulov's “Isis: the inside story”. In this long piece, Chulov, one of The Guardian's most senior Middle East correspondent explains how the American intervention in Iraq was the spark that created ISIS. The war dramatically and radically shifted the country's balance of power. Many top commanders and advisers are remains from Saddam Hussein's security apparatus. The Bucca prison, operated by the United States, was their clearest point of departure. It is where senior members met, brainstormed and exchanged phone numbers by writing them on their uniforms.

+ London Review of Books: Magical thinking about ISIS

+ Guardian: We accept that Russian bombs can provoke a terror backlash. Our can too

+ Guardian: Hundreds of civilians killed in US-led airstrikes on ISIS targets

+ Bob Dylan: Masters of War

2. The unimpeded growth of Salafism

In Saudi Arabia, beheading someone is law enforcement. Intolerance towards “the other” is institutionally enforced. For years, the elephant in the room was not honestly addressed. I'm not sure we're going to constructively talk about it soon. 

• Brookings Institution (image): Where are ISIS supporters tweeting from? (spoiler alert: Saudi Arabia)

• Adam Curtis: Bitter Lake

+ Nassim Taleb: The Saudi Wahabis are the real foe

3. Dealing with radicalisation

The terrorists who carried out the Paris attacks were mostly French. If we are serious about reducing the risk for future attacks, there must be something done from within.

“Laïcité”, the French version of secularism, is thoroughly analysed and criticised in this paper by Ian Birchall. Muslims may just be the most marginalised and populous minority in Western society today. (Just yesterday, some people in Texas demonstrated against Islamisation with their guns out—in front of a mosque.) There is a unique combination of low social connection with Western cultures along with high level international meddling in their  “home” countries. Perhaps a tad more of real “fraternité” and “égalité” might help. 

• Why is it that refugees avoid France?

In French: 

• Le Monde: Emmanuel Macron : la France a « une part de responsabilité » dans le « terreau » du djihadisme

• Geoconfluences: Pour contribuer à la réflexion après les attentats du 13 novembre

• Dominique de Villepin — une intervention éloquente contre l'intervention française en Syrie

*Thanks, 

Ulysse*