John A. Tures: Ben Carson and ISIS propaganda

Currently, America is in a fight for the hearts and minds of a number of young, impressionable people with the tech-savvy, media-slick ISIS operation. And Dr. Ben Carson's comments about Muslims just gave ISIS a huge boost in recruiting, just so Carson could net some campaign bucks and a few primary votes.

Our foreign policy team will tell you that ISIS doesn't have a lot of powerful weapons, other than the ones of ours they captured from the Iraqi Army. Their recruits are raw, though growing every day. And they've got quite a pipeline from the United States and West Europe, drawing in thousands of new fighters, thanks to a well-oiled ISIS propaganda machine.

A combination of studying Western culture and a few defectors who had lived in the West having given Team ISIS a slew of videos and social media access that combine video game shorts, clips from movies, and an enticing call to fight evil regimes like Syria's Bashir al-Assad.

Of course, many who show up realize the truth, often too late. Others delude themselves, buy into the message, and work to gain new recruits, using everything from hip magazines to tweets toYouTube productions, and know the power of Instagram better than our own government, or even al-Qaeda ever could with its low-tech operations. And yes, they unload on President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain all the time.

For all their "cool" recruiting ploys, ISIS began to run into trouble. Those beheadings and burnings exposed ISIS for the lie that it is. And our own government slowly began to mock ISIS's message in much the same style, showing its unholy war on innocents. Suddenly, victory on the battlefield or in cyberspace no longer seemed inevitable for ISIS.

But then, ISIS got a gift in the form of a naïve political candidate, Dr. Ben Carson, who said that Muslims should not be allowed to be president of the United States. As an expert on combatting ISIS noted "The rising xenophobia on display at the moment plays very well into their narrative," according to Business Insider.

Rather than admit his mistake, and actually read the Constitution that he claims to love (which shows there should be no religious litmus test for presidential candidates), Dr. Carson continued to defend his remarks. And his campaign manager bragged about the number of Facebook likes and campaign dollars Dr. Carson was able to attract with that publicity stunt, designed to boost his electoral fortunes.

But thankfully, this is a country where leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton actually read the U.S. Constitution, and could explain the law to Dr. Carson. This is a country where nearly every other candidate condemned Carson's comments, showing great bipartisan unity in the process.

It was a great time to remind the confused potential American recruit that we have Muslims in Congress, and Muslims have also been appointed to key positions of power by no less than presidential candidate Chris Christie. It was a good time to show that a majority of Americans disagree with Carson.

And we also showed that conservatives, moderates and liberals will stand up to someone who tries to use discrimination for his or her own personal political gain. That's the message ISIS doesn't want its potential dupes to hear.

John A. Tures, associate professor of political science, LaGrange College; jtures@lagrange.edu.

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "John A. Tures: Ben Carson and ISIS propaganda ."