16 November, 2015, Ten Network studio, Melbourne, Australia

Written by Waleed Aly and Tom Whitty

ISIL is weak. I know it doesn’t look like that right now, but it’s the truth. And they don’t want you to know it, which is why it’s something we should talk about.

When news broke that more than 130 people had been murdered in Paris, this is how ISIL responded.:

A group of believers from the soldiers of the caliphate, set out targeting the capital of prostitution and vice, the lead carrier of the cross in Europe – Paris.

And really there is no doubt that this was an Islamist terrorist attack probably executed under ISIL’s flag. What we don’t know yet is whether the attack was planned ordered or funded by ISIL’s leaders in Syria -- because the problem is, this is what ISIL do. They take credit for any act of terrorism on western soil, so that they appear bigger and tougher than they actually are.

They did the same thing last year with the shooting at Canada’s parliament, and when a bloke ran around New York with a hatchet attacking people. And again, with the Sydney siege.

ISIL didn’t control these guys, they were DIY terrorists who recruited themselves, but ISIL don’t want you to know that. How do I know? Becasue ISIL told us they don’t want you to know that, in their monthly magazine. In October last year, they wrote this:

It is important that the killing becomes attributed to patrons of the Islamic State, who have obeyed its leadership. This can easily be done with anonymity, otherwise crusader media makes such attacks appear t to be random killings.

There’s a reason, ISIL want to appear so powerful, why they don’t want to acknowledge that the land they control has been taken from weak enemies, that they’re pinned down by air strikes. Or that just last weekend they lost a significant part of their territory.

ISIL don’t want you to know that they would quickly be crushed if they ever faced a proper army on a real battlefield. They want you to fear them. They want you to get angry, they want all of us to become hostile, and here’s why. ISIL’s strategy is to split the world into two camps. It’s that black and white. Again, we know this, because they told us. Last year, they declared:

There is no grey zone in this crusade against the Islamic State. The world has split into two encampments, one for the people of faith, the other for the people of kufr [disbelief], all in preparation for the final malhamar [great war]

They want to start world war three – a global war between muslims and everyone else. That’s what they want to create. They want societies like France and here in Australia to turn on each other.

They want countries like ours to reject their muslims and vilify them.

ISIL’s leaders would be ecstatic to hear that since the atrocities in Paris, muslims have reportedly been threatened and attacked in England, America and here in Australia. Because this evil organisation has it in their heads, that if they can make muslims the enemy of the west, then muslims in France and England and America and here in Australia will have nowhere to turn, but to ISIL.

That was exactly their strategy in Iraq. And now, they want it to go global.

Saying that out loud, it’s both dumbfounding in its stupidity, and bloodcurdling in its barbarity.

We are all feeling a million raging emotions right now. I am angry at these terrorists. I am sickened by the violence, and I am crushed for the families that have been left behind, but, you know what, I won't be manipulated. We all need to come together.

I know how that sounds. I know it's a cliché, but it's also true because it's exactly what ISIL doesn't want. So if you're a member of Parliament or a has-been member of Parliament preaching hate at a time when what we actually need is more love, you are helping ISIL. They have told us that.

If you’re a Muslim leader telling yourcommunity they have no place here, or an basically saying the same thing, you’re helping ISIL. They have told us that.

Or if you are just someone with a Facebook or Twitter account firing off misguided missives of hate, you are helping ISIL. They have told us that.

And I’m pretty sure that right now -- none of us wants to help these bastards.