Ask HN: What can we do against terrorist attacks, like the one in Paris?

Tech people can disable the forums where terrorists recruit and promote their ideology. There are many foreigners who join ISIS, and many who initiate attacks based upon what they read.

There is very little we can do in the short term. We have to understand the reasons why ISIS are targeting the west. They have a multiple pronged approach:

- Provoke the west to further attacks on Muslims. Ideally the deaths of Muslims in Muslim lands should include innocents. Drone strikes and bombings are good, because it helps them turn the local people to their side.

- Provoke the west to hatred and bigotry of the greyzone Muslims (moderates) living in the west. Ideally they feel further marginalised and excluded. They need to be turned to fight for the caliphate, or be killed with the rest of the 'kuffār' (western non-believers).

- Provide young impressionable marginalised Muslim male youths with 'heroic' role models. Ghettoes in Paris where the 2005 riots took place are an ideal breeding ground for marginalization. Most are unemployed, have no education and no opportunities.

- Removal of despotic dictators from Muslim lands. Promoting instability, unemployment and isolation improves the chances of additional soldiers to join the fight.

I highly recommend an article called "THE EXTINCTION OF THE GRAYZONE" [1]:

  The Muslims in the West will quickly find themselves between
  one of two choices, they either apostatize and adopt the 
  kufrī religion propagated by Bush, Obama, Blair, Cameron, 
  Sarkozy, and Hollande in the name of Islam so as to live 
  amongst the kuffār without hardship, or they perform hijrah 
  to the Islamic State and thereby escape persecution from the 
  crusader governments and citizens.

This shows how the aim is two end up with two sides. No greyzone. Finally this highlights what we are up against:

  As the world progresses towards al-Malhamah al-Kubrā, the 
  option to stand on the sidelines as a mere observer is being 
  lost. As those with hearts diseased by hypocrisy and bid’ah 
  are driven towards the camp of kufr, those with a mustard 
  seed of sincerity and Sunnah are driven towards the camp of 
  īmān.

  Muslims in the crusader countries will find themselves 
  driven to abandon their homes for a place to live in the 
  Khilāfah, as the crusaders increase persecution against 
  Muslims living in Western lands so as to force them into a 
  tolerable sect of apostasy in the name of “Islam” before 
  forcing them into blatant Christianity and democracy.
  
  Muslims in the lands ruled by the apostate tawāghīt will 
  find themselves driven to the wilāyāt of the Islamic State, 
  as the tawāghīt increase their imprisonment of any Muslim 
  they think might have a mustard seed of jealousy for his 
  religion, or lead them to apostatize by working as agents, 
  soldiers, and puppets serving the banner of the tāghūt.
  
  Mujāhidīn in the lands of jihād will find themselves driven 
  to join the ranks of the Khilāfah, or forced to wage war 
  against it on the side of those willing to cooperate with 
  the munāfiqīn and murtaddīn against the Khilāfah. If they do 
  not execute these treacherous orders, they will be 
  considered khawārij by their leaders and face the sword of 
  “independent” courts infiltrated by the Sufis, the Ikhwān, 
  and the Salūlī sects.

  Eventually, the grayzone will become extinct and there will 
  be no place for grayish calls and movements. There will only 
  be the camp of īmān versus the camp of kufr.

ISIS believe in a prophesy. They are trying to make it come true. If you look at the list of things above, we are falling slowly into their hands, one step at a time.

The sad thing is that there is no quick fix. We could leave the middle east and stop interfering. It would be a good first step to defusing tensions based on our presence there, but it would simply open the door to ISIS at the moment, leaving a vacuum for them to fill.

If we go full out war, with boots on the ground then we end up joining a fight that we cannot win.

I've heard calls to "nuke them back to the stone age". That's great, but many of them are living amongst us. Paris has had several terrorist attacks and the vast majority of the attacks were French born. The same went for the attacks in London.

Long term we need to add to the grey zone. In fact we need to westernise and have inclusive policies to make sure the marginalized Muslim youth (in fact all disenfranchised youths) are included in society. They need to see that they have a future.

The best thing we can do is to train them and employ them, making them valuable members of society and giving them something to feel proud of.

At the moment, poisonous Mullahs are doing that job a hell of a lot better than we are.

[1] Source: THE EXTINCTION OF THE GRAYZONE: https://archive.is/VE0jj#selection-459.1-463.388

If you're a Data-Minded individual, it might be useful to first learn who exactly the terrorists (and their comrades) are.

The vast majority of terrorist attacks in E.U. countries have for years been perpetrated by separatist organizations> http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/01/08/3609796/islamist-t...

+1 my dear.

No. He said "once it is known for certain". We're pretty close, but it is still reasonable to say that we're not there yet.