How charming it is to see Islamic State betray a sign of humanity. It appears that they, too, need their agony aunts. Of course, being patriarchal in the manner of their fathers, they must have agony uncles instead. And the movement’s radio service Al-Bayan is happy to serve them up. In the interest of public safety, uncles must be clerics. Obviously, because the questions they face are highly technical, not the sort of thing that agony aunts usually field, which pertain to various human relations issues outside holy matrimony. The soldiers of Islamic State are focused on domestic affairs. They want to know, for instance, whether their women should be exposed to the extremely violent propaganda videos generated by the movement.
The answer should be obvious: No one at all, including women, should be exposed to those infamous videos. Their makers should spend the rest of their lives in contemplation of the purgatory which, if God exists, certainly awaits them. But the agony uncles can rest easy. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have just shared their hashes of terrorist posts, and very soon the internet is going to be scrubbed clean of those decapitation videos.
