More to ISIS than ‘Jihadi John’ brand

Following the brutal killing of James Foley in August 2014, the masked face of “Jihadi John” first gained prominence across our TV screens, newspapers, and social media feeds.

Since then, as a direct consequence of the copious media attention dedicated to Jihadi John, the image of the masked figure has become ubiquitous and inescapable, allowing for a potent propaganda tool for ISIS, also known as Islamic State. He was on Thursday unmasked as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born 27-year-old from west London, first in the Washington Post and later confirmed by two U.S. officials and two U.S. congressional sources briefed on the matter.

By focusing only on the role of law enforcement officials, and by exclusively dealing with extremism once it has become a terrorist act, we are consistently one step behind, and the terrorist intention achieves almost as much as the terrorist act as regards public opinion anyway. Instead we need a civil society response that challenges extremism of all kinds as a social ill, comparable to racism or homophobia. London leading the UK in this shift cannot come soon enough.

Now that the identity of “Jihadi John” is known, it is more important than ever to ensure we don’t simply destroy the brand, but also dismantle the marketing strategy, and dispute the ideology.

CNN