The Killing Game: Martyrdom, Murder, and the Lure of ISIS - Softcover

Bourrie, Mark

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9781443447027: The Killing Game: Martyrdom, Murder, and the Lure of ISIS

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1443447021 ISBN 13: 9781443447027

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2017

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On January 21, 2015, a pro-ISIS Twitter account reported that John Maguire, a twenty-three-year-old university dropout from the Ottawa Valley town of Kemptville, had been killed fighting Kurds in the Syrian city of Kobani. A few weeks before, Maguire had appeared in a YouTube video threatening Canada for bombing ISIS forces in Iraq. He is one of the dozens of young Canadians who have chosen to fight in a vicious conflict that has little to do with them or with Canada.

ISIS is now a go-to cause for alienated young people in the Islamic world and the West. This book examines the lure of this radical Islamist movement: its religious beliefs, sophisticated propaganda and vast social media networks. Does it offer answers to troubled young people? Are ISIS’s crimes—slavery, murder, rape, repression and the destruction of heritage sites—an attraction in and of themselves? What do we do about the people who take up ISIS’s cause but stay in their home country? What do we do with the ISIS recruits who come home?

The Killing Game examines what draws young men and women to join violent social and political movements. It looks at the psychology of young men and women today and the propaganda used by all sides in the Middle East conflicts, as well as the security laws and political initiatives that have been implemented to prevent Canadians from becoming radicalized.

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From the Back Cover:

The Killing Game describes the lure of ISIS and the radical Islamist movement: its religious beliefs, sophisticated propaganda and vast social media networks. It examines what draws young men and women to join violent social/political movements, and looks at the psychology of young men and women today and the propaganda used by all sides in the Middle East conflicts, as well as the
security laws and the political initiatives that have been designed to stop Canadians from being radicalized.

About the Author:

Mark Bourrie is quickly emerging as the country’s leading expert and author on propaganda and censorship. He is also an award-winning writer and a respected military historian with a PhD in history. A National Magazine Award–winning journalist, he has been a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery since 1994. Bourrie lectures on propaganda and censorship at the Department of National Defence Public Affairs Learning Centre and periodically teaches courses on media history, censorship and propaganda at Carleton University and in Canadian studies at the University of Ottawa.

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