Does self-defense sometimes require violence? Of course it does, but that should always be the last resort. Whenever a killer threat is known, whether by an individual or a group, whether large or small, all other methods of prevention that are non-violent should be fully employed.

Today our minds focus on ISIS because they are the headline grabbing killers of today. So, let’s focus on the non-violent preventive methods that have absolutely not been fully or properly used so far. I believe in freedom of religion and have nothing against any religion that was founded with the intention of encouraging proper living.
I am not an opponent of the religion originally founded by the Prophet Muhammad and the Koran, and I understand that Islam was founded for the worship of the one God in the Arabian Peninsula that was totally polytheistic and idol worshipping at that time.

Step One: All recruiting for the purpose of violence and killing should be illegal, and to some extent is, but not universally. My book, The Peace Prscription, recommends that The Peace Law should be in force all over the world for this purpose. Any Internet company, whether a search engine such as Google (Alphabet) or Yahoo or others, all social media site owners, and any website builder or site providers or hosts, should be considered guilty of aiding and abetting violence in those cases in which they were aware that their sites, social media or hosted websites, and/or emails were being used for the purpose of recruiting, organizing or planning violence or killing of people. The only way to avoid that guilt, and it’s criminal charges and imprisonment, not just monetary fines, should be the removal of all such known materials from the Internet, whether emails, social media or on websites, in a timely manner.

Step Two: It should also be illegal to send emails, host websites, or post on social media or on any websites, do cell phone texts, or by phone make any effort to recruit, organize or plan violence or killing. Let’s be clear: Freedom of speech allows people to say that they believe certain types of people are bad and deserve to die, or even to say, “That person or group of people is so bad that I hope, wish and pray that someone will kill that person or that group”; but, it’s not freedom of speech to seriously say,”I/we have the weapons so come join us to go kill those people now!” Seriously recruiting and plotting to kill is not freedom of speech whether it’s person to person in conversation, or whether it’s on the Internet or communicated in any way.

Step Three: The term of imprisonment should be, for those found guilty under Step One or Step Two, a specified time frame, plus an indefinite extension of that imprisonment term until such time that the guilty persons are able to convince the Court that they have no further intent to commit such crimes in the future, so that people’s safety will no longer be threatened from violence and murder aided and abetted by those in charge of social media sites, website hosting, etc., or by those recriting and plotting, to commit violence, regardless of how that is done

Step Four: The arguments being made to recruit killers by any person or group should be analyzed by capable strategists and psychologists, who are acting on their own, or who have been appointed by government agencies or Courts, and these strategists and psychologists should suggest counter-arguments that would be effective to dissuade most of the recruiting, if not all of it, by those who seek more killers to join them. For example, in the case of Muslims (believers in one God, as per the Prophet Muhammad and the Koran, regardless of whether they be Islamists, Christians or Jews), as well as Islamists in particular, the Koran states “commit not suicide”, thus negating suicide killing, and also states, “Attack no one unless they attack you first”, which negates killing innocent people.

Step Five: We should hear and see more conversation, via all media, about how the joining of killers by young people can only result in the destruction and loss of their own chances for a productive and fulfilling life. Besides killing those who did not deserve to be killed, the killers themselves are ultimately doomed as well. And, there will be nothing of value gained by the killers before their premature deaths, or, at best, long term imprisonment.

In the meantime, military and police action, and personal self-defense with weapons, are, sadly, both necessary and appropriate until the five steps above are being done and are obviously being highly effective.

Your comments are welcome. Thank you for your attention to this blog.
Your friendly problem solver,
Dr. Ed Marshall