[...] Bagdadi and his followers made terror their raison d'être. ISIS paraded their increasingly grisly snuff videos – which often turned out to be their most effective recruiting tools. Comfortable, middle-class Muslim kids across the Western world flocked to get in on the action – including the chance to buy their very own sex slaves in the markets of Raqqa.

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Punk rock philosopher. Liberalist contrarian. Grumpy old bastard. I grew up in a generational-Labor-voting family. I kept the faith long after the political left had abandoned it. In the last decade...