Using humour as a way of defying the ultimate fear- death- has been a common thread in many societies. The yearly celebrations since pagan times have manifested themselves as All Hallows’ Day in Christianity, as the Day of the Dead in pre and post-Columbian Mexico and as the secularised and commercialised Halloween festivities \u00a0elsewhere,\u00a0 including, in recent years, in Turkey.<\/p>\n
Dressing up in costumes depicting supernatural figures or scary characters from fiction has been innocent, light-hearted fun, especially for children. Yet, these colourful and happy rituals dating back thousands of years have begun to create a measure of unease.<\/p>\n
In the United States where it is common to decorate houses and gardens with tombstones, skeletons and grotesque figures, the entertainment venues came under criticism for their classical Halloween exhibits.\u00a0 Several local newspapers reported complaints over severed heads, blood and gore reminding people of beheadings by ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Images of young people wearing ISIS costumes holding models of chopped heads and weapons in their Halloween parties have caused distaste.<\/p>\n
At the risk of being accused of exaggerating, I have to admit to sharing some of this unease.<\/p>\n
For many years and long before the brutality of ISIS has hit the headlines, I have been deeply concerned about people everywhere becoming desensitized to increasing levels of violence. \u00a0After all, ISIS was not the first group to terrorize people into compliance. \u00a0Drug cartels in Mexico have been chopping heads and limbs, displaying them in towns and villages and posting gruesome images of the dead on social media for years. \u00a0Yet, this is the country where defiance of death is at the heart of the most important and colourful national celebration, Dia de Muertos.<\/p>\n
One reason why I could not bring myself to join enthusiastically this three thousand year-old tradition has been the ever-present reality of daily violence. Mexico is a country that regularly tops the world charts with its homicide rates. \u00a0As a foreign observer and a \u00a0short-term resident, \u00a0I find death too real and too close to be humoured here.<\/p>\n
If one desired effect of these displays of atrocities is to coerce by fear and intimidation, the other is to attract sympathizers. \u00a0That is particularly true of radical ideologies that use powerful propaganda \u00a0tools alongside violent tactics.<\/p>\n
According to a recent Populus survey conducted in the UK, one in seven young British adults has \u201cwarm feelings\u201d towards Islamic State. The Times<\/a> newspaper reported the warning by some experts that the young people who admire Isis would probably include a small but significant number of non-Muslims disillusioned with the government and its foreign policy, as well as a core of Islamists.<\/p>\n A report by the United Nations this week has highlighted the unprecedented number of foreign jihadists that have joined ISIS to fight in Iraq and Syria.\u00a0 They are said to come from 80 countries, some of them not previously known to be places where Islamic radicalism had manifested itself.<\/p>\n