What Aaron Told Me

A Canadian reporter recounts his interviews with the ISIS sympathizer killed by police in an apparent attempt at a suicide bombing.

Read it here.

Fears About Syrian Refugees

"ISIS will come for our women”. That’s how one resident expressed his fears about the proposed settling of refugees in the US state of Montana.

Around 100 refugees could be moving to the American West thanks to a local group in Missoula who were inspired to help after seeing the photo of a drowned Syrian boy whose family had fled the conflict.

But people in the neighbouring rural county are not happy. A local politician told the BBC they want a guarantee refugees will not be a threat - and he warned of a culture clash between any Muslim refugees from Syria and the predominantly white local population.

Watch the video here.

The Ideas Behind ISIS

This is an important article from the Atlantic Council. It examines the ideology that underlies the terrorist group called ISIS.

Extremism

Business Insider has a good article detailing the methods Daesh (ISIS) uses to recruit converts online. It references this article from the New York Times, which tells the story of Alex, a young American woman recruited by Daesh. Both are worth reading.

Follow a link from the Business Insider page to read "A Course in the Art of Recruiting" a manual developed by Al-Qaeda and apparently used by Daesh.

On the subject of extremism, this report from the Carnegie Endowment is a must read.