The Good Must Associate: Key Strategies in the Counterjihad Movement

TO PREVAIL against orthodox Islam's relentless encroachment, we need to employ three essential strategies: gather allies, coordinate our efforts, and concentrate our forces at decisive points. Let me explain these in more detail:

1. Gather allies. A large number of orthodox Muslims are working toward Islam's prime directive. Obviously three counterjihadists will not prevail against such a large, organized group. We need numbers. The more allies we have on our side, the greater our chances of winning.

If three of us demonstrate outside a mosque, and five hundred Muslims protest our demonstration, we will look like a small, unpopular fringe group and the Muslims will look like the mainstream majority opinion. This kind of thing has a psychological impact on anyone watching this on television because of the principle of social proof. But if five hundred Muslims demonstrate and ten thousand counterjihadists protest their demonstration, it sends an entirely different message to anyone watching on television or participating in the demonstration. Numbers count.

That's why it is so crucial to educate people about Islam. We need more people on our side.

Many Citizen Warrior readers took to heart the article, Facebook Allies, and applied the principle, and it made a difference. The purpose of the article was to solve a problem counterjihadists were having on Facebook — they would share something about Islam, and their Facebook friends and family would gang up on them, arguing, criticizing them, and defending Islam. It was upsetting to a lot of counterjihadists. It made them feel isolated and alone. And to their friends and family, it made them look like factious, disaffected loners who needed to be straightened out by the "sensible majority."

So people went to counterjihad Facebook pages (here is a list of them) and read comments and posts, looking for allies, and friended them. Then when any of their allies posted something on their personal Facebook page about Islam, they would receive lots of support and "likes" and approving comments from their allies, and if one of their family members criticized it, their allies would jump in and defend it, and each ally does that for each other.

This feels a lot better, is much less upsetting, and has a greater impact on anyone reading. The original poster no longer appears as an isolated agitator, but rather has become a spokesperson for a popular, supported point of view. The key strategy at work here is gaining allies.

This is one of the reasons ACT! for America is such an important organization to the counterjihad movement. As Brigitte Gabriel says, when the ACT! for America lobbyist walks into a senator's office in Washington, D.C. she can say she represents an organization of almost a million voters, and that's enough to make a senator listen! If the lobbyist represented an organization of forty people, would a senator take the time to listen? Not likely. They are busy people. Our sheer numbers give us clout.

2. Coordinate efforts. If there were a hundred thousand active counterjihadists, but each worked on different projects, we wouldn't accomplish much. But if most of us worked on a few central projects, those projects would be much more likely to succeed.

That's what we were doing by writing to Councilwoman Deborah Pauly (see story here). She was vilified by Muslim groups and the media. She probably felt outnumbered, and for many people, that would make them hesitant to speak up again. On the other hand, if she heard from thousands of people who support her and encourage her, it could embolden her to continue her outspoken resistance to creeping Sharia. Coordinated efforts could make the difference.

ACT! for America is using this principle masterfully with their Legislative Action Center. It has made it very easy to make our voices heard by the right people on specific issues. It helps coordinate counterjihad efforts.

3. Concentrate force at a decisive point. This is where allies and coordination can have their greatest impact. In the book, How to Win on the Battlefield, the authors write, "The concentration of force was regarded by Clausewitz as the first and highest principle of war. He reiterated that, at the operational level, commanders had to concentrate maximum force, which in his day equated to all available troops, at the decisive point; it was essential to overwhelm and break the enemy physically and morally."

Many times in history, a military force was outnumbered and yet won the battle. Often it was because the principle of concentration of force does not require absolute superiority in numbers. It only requires a local superiority at a decisive point.

When women were fighting to gain the vote in the United States, for example, they had to get 36 states to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Women's suffrage organizations sent organizers from all over the country to the state that was then considering the legislation, thus concentrating their forces at the decisive point.

That is what we must do. The big question for all of us is, "What is the decisive point?" As Brian Tracy said in Victory: "Determining the right time and place requires a combination of judgment, timing," and good information (good "intel").

We're getting much better information now than we did at the beginning of the modern counterjihad movement, and we're getting it much faster. And through our formal and informal networks, we are collectively making good judgments on where to concentrate our forces. Some calls for action are shared far and wide, and some fizzle out, as each person essentially "votes" on the proposal (by either forwarding or deleting).

Our networks are getting bigger. Our numbers are growing. And we're getting more and more organized. It's time to look at strategy. We can each begin by deliberately applying the three principles above. When you're thinking about some event or thinking about potential actions you might take, ask yourself, "How can I apply the three key strategies to this situation?" It will give you effective ideas and ways to proceed.

Edmund Burke once wrote, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

So let us associate, let's organize, let's concentrate our forces, and let's win.