I'm at the risk of contradicting myself several times in a single post, but here goes:
- Talking to people with a position as extreme and wrong as this gives that position, and those people, a legitimacy it and they do not deserve.
- Not talking to them doesn't really solve the problem either, as then they still have the same position but can claim their voice is ignored = more anger, more fuel on the fire.
- Then again most extremists never listen to reason anyway so talking achieves little or nothing.
- But maybe one or two will listen so at least you've made a difference to those ones.
And so on and so forth, I can keep on arguing with myself on this all day...
The most successful approach is probably the one used in Malaya by General Sir Harold Briggs -- if only we had tried the same with equal fervour in Iraq or Afghanistan we might be faced with far less mess. Simple idea -- engage with the communities from which these people come from, so as to cut the extremists of from popular support. No amount of shouting, or fighting, from the West will ever be effective against those who wish to destroy us -- but if their own friends and families protest, that might make the difference.