Is the enemy evil?

i agree that it was a great video and i also agree about making the distinction between policies and people

i do not agree with looking at groups such as ISIS and saying "oh its not that they are evil, its just that I dont agree with their policies"

i mean, the policy comes from the mind which develops it, and they make their policies clear with their rhetoric and their actions

saying that their policies and their actions are evil does not free me from the burden of self evaluation or self restraint

in fact, to a very great degree it is the willingness for honest self evaluation and for self restraint which characterizes "goodness" and separates it from "evil"

Interesting concept to be sure, but it's incomplete. I agree that she's kind of guilty of the same oversimplification here as well.

It's a very complex problem set, and simply glossing over it to the advantage of any side does an enormous disservice to those on both sides who have died for what they believe, or what they were taught to believe.

I don't feel like the ones on the level that does the fighting are evil, at least not intentionally malicious. They are doing the best they can with what information they have. The ones who could be accused of being evil are the power brokers at the top of all sides who are trying to use the people they influence for their own financial, personal, or political gain.

the video is great and i think it should be shown to high school and college kids and probably aired a few times a week on major usa syndicates, but it didnt really further the conversation (well that depends on which conversation i guess)

the obvious response to the title is "which enemy?"

the video content was good, but did anyone here not already understand the points she made?

OB1Shinobi wrote:
the video content was good, but did anyone here not already understand the points she made?

Well, most of us here are Jedi, and look at the world already like this.... Even some of the non-jedi who hang here do...

However, how many of our self absorbed friends are "always right'?

I shared on Facebook... Usually, my shares are PSAs anyway, lol...

Not PSAs about 'there being 6 friday saturdays or sundays every 666 years', nor that 'the blood moon only happens every thousand years'....

But, stuff like motorcycle awareness, and Road Worker awareness...

Plus, learning another way to say the same message puts another message in our arsenal...

I'm sorry but she got it wrong. ISIS is evil. Any radical group that uses violence to deprive others of life, liberty or property is evil. Are they absolutely evil? No. Evil does not exist in and of itself. Instead there are only evil acts. Every one of is us capable of evil acts just as we are capable of good acts. But just because we are capable does not make us absolutely one thing or the other. What we really need to do is stop evaluating our enemy and trying to decide if they are good or evil. Instead we need to evaluate ourselves and try and decide if our ends justifies our means? We need to evaluate the acts we undertake. Are our acts good or evil? Maybe neither side is good... maybe both sides are evil. The question you must ask yourself is, are you/we just as evil as our enemy? In the end if we become as evil as that thing we are trying to eradicate we have no more right to exist than they do.

There is no such thing as an evil human. All humans have the capability to do good things, or to do bad things. But, if a C.I.A officer were to shoot dead an ISIS shooter, the shooter's father, a good, honest, regular Muslim would hate that officer and want to kill him, you can't break the bond. if u know what i mean

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote: The question you must ask yourself is, are you/we just as evil as our enemy? In the end if we become as evil as that thing we are trying to eradicate we have no more right to exist than they do.

i agree basically and i would add "can we co-exist?"

that is part of the criteria for deciding if we are evil ourselves

its not possible to judge them or to decide how to deal with them unless we have a grasp on what they are after

so, putting aside who is evil or isnt evil, what does daesh want?

from http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/world-news/who-isis-what-want-10466684

In April 2010, present IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the new head of the group.

ISIS aspires to create a caliphate, a state governed in accordance with Islamic law by God’s deputy on Earth, or caliph. A caliph seen as the successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

In June 2014, the group formally declared the establishment of a caliphate.

It has demanded that Muslims across the world swear allegiance to its leader – Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri al-Samarrai, better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – and migrate to territory under its control.

IS has also told other jihadist groups worldwide that they must accept its supreme authority.

Many already have, among them several offshoots of the rival al-Qaeda network.

IS seeks to eradicate obstacles to restoring God’s rule on Earth and to defend the Muslim community, or umma, against infidels and apostates."

what i get from that is that abu bakr wants to be Muhammed and he has some very serious people on board helping him to achieve that

from http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/11/middleeast/isis-syria-iraq-caliphate/

"ISIS makes no secret of its ultimate ambition: A global caliphate secured through a global war. To that end it speaks of "remaining and expanding" its existing hold over much of Iraq and Syria. It aims to replace existing, man-made borders, to overcome what it sees as the Shiite "crescent" that has emerged across the Middle East, to take its war -- Islam's war -- to Europe and America, and ultimately to lead Muslims toward an apocalyptic battle against the "disbelievers."

from https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-does-isis-really-want-now

"In the latest issue of Dabiq, ISIS’s on-line magazine, the organization sets forth two principal but contradictory goals, which it labels “options.” The first is to spread a totalitarian caliphate throughout the region and, ultimately, the world. The second is to polarize Muslims against one another, to incite internal divisions within the West, and to turn the West against Islam, with the ultimate goal of “goad[ing] the West into launching an all-out ground attack, thereby setting the scene for the final battle between Muslims and the crusaders prophesized to be held at Dabiq in Syria.”

are these sources exaggerating the reality?

does anyone have sources which they believe offer more likely answers to the question "what does daesh want?"

Silas Mercury wrote: There is no such thing as an evil human. All humans have the capability to do good things, or to do bad things. But, if a C.I.A officer were to shoot dead an ISIS shooter, the shooter's father, a good, honest, regular Muslim would hate that officer and want to kill him, you can't break the bond. if u know what i mean

this video is just over ten minutes, please watch it

i dont mean you any disrespect, you seem like you want to be a good person and i appreciate that

but you cannot justify saying "there is no such thing as an evil human" until you have looked at what we (I) mean when (I) we say "evil"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu17Wuq3nI8

omg. I am so sorry

yeah, me too