Low Self-Esteem
...can be a real killer. Roger Cohen explores the reasons behind murderous fanaticism:
In his inaugural speech for his second term, President George W. Bush summed up the idea: "The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in the world. America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one." Those phrases have the beautiful simplicity of an Einstein equation. All is reconciled. All has meaning as we in the West understand meaning.
But the problem is that Leeds is no stranger to liberty. Nor is Hamburg, where Atta lived for a decade, along with the suicide pilots of two of the other 9/11 flights, Ziad al-Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi. In these cities, Western values - including some measure of the "respect for others" of which Blair spoke - were on daily display.
That such experience should turn these Muslims into suicide bombers suggests a different conclusion: perhaps it is the very onerous nature of Western freedom, with its multiplicity of choices and absence of moral absolutism, that led them to seek refuge in a fanatical faith. This strain of Islam hates the West. It finds ammunition for its hatred in Iraq and Afghanistan, but its roots go much deeper.
Those roots lie in a sense of humiliation, a conviction that a great Islamic civilization was destroyed by outsiders' imperial power - French and British colonialists, Zionist intruders or American imperialists. In Al Qaeda's call to restore the caliphate, they see a way out of humiliation, and in certain Koranic verses they find its justification.
"But the problem is that Leeds is no stranger to liberty. Nor is Hamburg, where Atta lived for a decade..."
What tripe. It's my understanding that many of the Muslims in France and England live in poverty and squalor in public housing ghettos. There's also high unemployment and overt discrimination against them. They may live in a free society, but there's not much opportunity for getting ahead.
Furthermore, many of the people in these Muslim ghettos are first or second generation immigrants that bring the baggage of their mother countries with them. Interesting link here that shows there is no assimilation going on in these communities:
http://ussneverdock.blogspot.com/2005/04/islam-muslim-plans-for-uk.html
So the claim that lack of liberty isn't the problem is all hogwash.
nash at July 22, 2005 9:34 AM
Unassimilated aliens are a great threat to any country they inhabit.
Deirdre B. at July 22, 2005 2:34 PM
Nash, is it at least possible that the public housing and similar sustaining, if not enobling, support from government is defeating the assimilation? Nothing makes us along with others like NEEDING to. In free society, opportunities are found, not given.
Crid at July 23, 2005 12:12 AM
...GET along with others...
etc
Crid at July 23, 2005 12:13 AM
Exactly, Crid. Part of having opportunity is wanting to have it -- as opposed to wanting to remain comfortably on the dole. My relatives were desperate to assimilate -- and did. Maybe these people prefer their primitivism? And think "Allah" is going to help them?
Amy Alkon at July 23, 2005 5:22 AM
That was dead on. When Bin Laden referred to the "humiliation" suffered by Islam eighty-years ago, most westerners had no idea what he was talking about, but every Moslem knew that it was the end of the Ottoman Sultanate and the loss of the central leadership of Islam. The problem is that Islam, unlike Judaism and Christianity, had a formative period in which it was ascendant over the surrounding peoples and the Qur'an ends with that period. Mohammed ruled as a religious leader and warrior-king and the Caliphs, derived from the term "khalifa" or successor, ruled both as temporal and religious leaders. Islam has no concept of separating church and state and most Moslems can't conceive of it, which is why the loss of the Sultanate was such a massive shock.
odysseus at July 23, 2005 7:35 AM
Good points all, and the fact that the identified bombers in London have come from wealthy families only underscores the point further.
Perhaps we'll have less homegrown nutjobs in the future if we can figure out a long - term solution to our immigration problems south of the border. Europe has made immigration easy for many Muslims wishing to do the menial jobs that the natives won't perform, but many restrictions await for those wanting to achieve full citizenship. It appears that our policy of (legal) immigration reverses that dynamic, much to our benefit.
Dmac at July 23, 2005 8:31 AM
Leave a comment