Tunisia, And The Urge To Kill

[PoliticalChic]

Common knowledge is.......common knowledge.
Although it may be common, it is often less than 'knowledge.'

Take, for example, the belief that if the Muslim masses were made somehow to become productive, affluent, and educated....well, they wouldn't become jihadis..



If you believe such, you would be wrong.
In fact, you could not be more wrong.
You could try, but you would not be successful.



There are a number of reasons that weigh in favor of believing such foolishness...
a. It is reassuring, gives one hope to avoid conflicts, after all...'they're just like us.'
b. Our leaders lie to us...Islam...religion of peace.
c. Schools and the media, wholly owned subsidiaries of Liberalism, Inc., have been perpetuating this drivel forever, and there are few voices that correct them.



Coming up, the truth, and the proof.

1. Islamic civilization exists under a common religious belief authorized in a sacred text whose law is never to be altered. Rather than freedom, it is defined by submission.
Understanding can be found by looking deeply into the Arabic verb 'salima,' from which are derived 'Islam,' 'salm,' and 'salaam,' meaning submission, peace, and safety ["The Handy Religion Answer Book" By John Renard, P. 193], implying 'to be secure,' 'unharmed,' or 'blameless.'
Therefore, to be Muslim is to have surrendered, submitted, and, thereby, to have obtained security.

2. How does that compare with the rewards offered by Western society? Western civilization has left behind its religious belief and its sacred text to place its trust, not in religious certainties, but in "open discussion, trial and error, and the ubiquitousness of doubt."
Roger Scruton, "The West and the Rest."

3. As the West offers freedoms unheard of in Islamic countries, it should not be a surprise that 70% of the world's refugees are Muslims fleeing from places where their religion is the official doctrine. They flee to the West, for opportunity, and personal safety, as well as said freedom.




4. Now get this...the oddity is that, while settling in the West, many of these refugees begin to develop a hatred for their new home...and plan to take revenge on it with only its final destruction as the fitting punishment.
Even less understandable, those Muslims who settle and assimilate often have children, brought up in the West, yet identify as opposition to it, and desire its annihilation.



So....how does this fit the view " if the Muslim masses were made somehow to become productive, affluent, and educated....well, they wouldn't become jihadis"???

Starting to see the problem?


5. "Of course, one can blame Islam...but consider the view from the other side. True, one may see the problem with an atavistic seventh century view of the world...but, for the Muslim it is the fault of the West rejecting the idea of God's immutable will, revealed to his Prophet in the form of an unchangeable code of law."
Scruton, "The West and The Rest."

 

[PoliticalChic]

6. Tunisia, a case study

...A 98% Muslim nation, a democracy with free elections,....


a. " Tunisia has a high human development index.[8]It has anassociation agreement with the European Union and is a member of La Francophonie, the Arab Maghreb Union, the Arab League and the African Union. Close relations with Europe – in particularwith France[11]andwith Italy[12][13] – have been forged through economic cooperation,privatisation and industrial modernization....the overwhelming majority, of about 98%,[84][102]simply identify themselves as Arabs....
The adult literacy rate in 2008 was 78%.[140]Education is given a high priority and accounts for 6% of GNP..."
Tunisia - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia


b. Standard of Living....Tunisia, $9,900....Morocco...$5,500.....Sierra Leone...$1,400
(These are estimated 2013 figures per capita incomes.)
The World Factbook


c. " Tunisians have approved a new Constitution by a broad consensus, and a second free election is to take place this month. The country has the advantage of one of the Arab world’s most educated and cosmopolitan populations, numbering just 11 million, and it has some of the most alluring Mediterranean beaches."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/w...s-in-tunisia-drive-support-for-isis.html?_r=0




Tunisia....Morocco....Sierra Leone


Which of the three nations above has sent the greatest number of volunteers to fight along side ISIS?

 

[PoliticalChic]

7. ".... four years after the Arab Spring revolt,Tunisia remains its lone success as chaos engulfs much of the region.


But that is not its only distinction: Tunisia has sent more foreign fighters than any other country to Iraq and Syria to join the extremist group that calls itself the Islamic State.


.... instead of sapping the appeal of militant extremism, the new freedom that came with the Arab Spring revolt has allowed militants to preach and recruit more openly than ever before..... Although Tunisia’s steps toward democracy have enabled young people to express their dissident views, impatience and skepticism have evidently led a disgruntled minority to embrace the Islamic State’s radically theocratic alternative.


Tunisian officials say that at least 2,400 Tunisians have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the group — other studies say as many as 3,000— while thousands more have been blocked in the attempt."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/w...s-in-tunisia-drive-support-for-isis.html?_r=0




So...."they're just like us"????

Really?

Democracy, freedom, economic advances,.....worthless.


"...at least 2,400 Tunisians have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join [ISIS]..."

 

[PoliticalChic]

So....for a young Tunisian Muslim....which is better, Tunisia, or ISIS?



8. " “The Islamic State is a true caliphate, a system that is fair and just, where you don’t have to follow somebody’s orders because he is rich or powerful,” said Ahmed, a young supporter of the Islamic State .... “It is action, not theory, and it will topple the whole game.”


....it seemed that everyone under 30 knew someone who had traveled to fight in Syria or Iraq, or someone who had died there. In interviews at cafes in and around Ettadhamen, dozens of young unemployed or working-class men expressed support for the extremists or saw the appeal of joining their ranks — convinced that it could offer a higher standard of living, a chance to erase arbitrary borders that have divided the Arab world for a century, or perhaps even the fulfillment of Quranic prophecies that Armageddon will begin with a battle in Syria."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/w...s-in-tunisia-drive-support-for-isis.html?_r=0




So....if democracy, freedom, higher standard of living,....are not effective in diluting the jihadi urge to kill.....what is the answer?

 

[Jroc]

muslims are no worst than Christians. Ask the leftist, they'll tell you.

 

[Moonglow]

or the Jews, right???

 

[Jroc]

or the Jews, right???

Religious Jews ask the leftist they'll tell you

 

[PoliticalChic]

9. An interesting, and recurring theme throughout modern Middle East history, is the influence of Leftist ideas insinuating their way in....


"Mourad, 28, who said he held a master’s degree in technology but could find work only in construction, called the Islamic State the only hope for “social justice,” because he said it would absorb the oil-rich Persian Gulf monarchies and redistribute their wealth. “It is the only way to give the people back their true rights, by giving the natural resources back to the people,” he said. “It is an obligation for every Muslim.”
NYTimes, Op. Cit.

OMG!!!

This guy could run on any Democrat ticket in this country!!




When asked what they think the problem is and what solution is....

" Leaders of Ennahda, the mainstream Islamist party that leads the Tunisian Parliament, said they had overestimated the power of democracy alone to tame violent extremism. Said Ferjani, an Ennahda leader who has often cited his own evolution from youthful militancy to peaceful politics, said in an interview that he now believed economic development would be just as important. “Without social development, I don’t think the democracy could survive,” he said."



Really?
Think that a good job would be the anodyne to the jihadi urge to kill??



Democracy intensified the problem...and for Muslims in the United States, and Canada who race off to join ISIS....economic advancement seems not to be the answer.

It would be nice if we had leadership who considered this question.

 

[Jroc]

Leftist and radical islam have a kinship, in that they both hate America as founded, and capitalism in general. They are partners in the war against it.

 

[PoliticalChic]

10. And how's this for another similarity between jihadis, and the targets of Liberal indoctrination: they are inundated with, and actually believe, propaganda:


a. "Maybe when the war is over, we will all be in an Islamic state, for all practicing Muslims, under Shariah,” he said with a shrug, adding that he had asked his brother directly about the Islamic State’s beheadings and other atrocities. “He said, ‘Don’t believe it,’ and I trust my brother.”

Indeed, in dozens of conversations with young Tunisians, almost no one, whether sympathizers or critics, believed the news reports of the Islamic State’s mass killings or beheadings. “It is made up,” echoed Amar Msalmi, 28, a taxi driver. “All of this is manufactured in the West.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/w...s-in-tunisia-drive-support-for-isis.html?_r=0




It takes a certain kind of weak mind to accept propaganda like this:

b. This was a flyer delivered in Cumberland County, North Carolina....

"The front of the flier blares: “Kay Hagan doesn’t win! Obama’s impeachment will begin! Vote in 2014.” The words are superimposed over a grainy reproduction of a photograph of what appears to be a lynching. Someone tucked the flier under McNair’s windshield wiper while her car was parked at her church, Kingdom Impact Global Ministries on Murchison Road.

“My daughter said, ‘Mom, look in the background. They’re lynching somebody.’ It’s the lynching of an African-American man,” McNair said." ... according to a local NAACP representative, likening the unlikely impeachment of the president to a time when African-Americans were systematically murdered by white mobs is not racist. “That’s what the community feels,” said Fayetteville NAACP branch president Jimmy Buxton." Subtle Pro-Kay Hagan fliers warns GOP victory with lynching images Hot Air


Or this...

b. "Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown ... was expected to coast to victory in the deeply blue state and become its first African-American governor. That’s not shaping up to be the case.... A new mailer with the authority line “Paid for by the Maryland Democratic Party” targets black voters by tying Republicans to the Democratic Party’s racist past....“They’ve placed roadblocks in our path at every turn.” It features pictures of a “colored waiting room” sign, ... racists marching against civil rights,.... use of race in this manner is a sign of worried campaign,..."
Maryland Democrats Play The Race Card In Latest Mailer The Daily Caller

 

[PoliticalChic]

11. So here's where we stand today: all the "common knowledge" explanations...you know, like poverty causes criminality, wrong.

...neither democracy nor economic advances quell the desire for jihad.....

Only one more 'plan'....what about education?
You know...if they were more educated, well....they would realize the error of their ways.
Right?

Not right.


a. "More details are emerging about Humam al-Balawi, the man who blew up seven intelligence agents in Afghanistan. By education and professional status, the Jordanian doctor is typical of recent suicidal attackers. The man accused of trying to blow up a plane on Christmas Day is a Nigerian graduate of the University of London. In the Fort Hood shootings, a Palestinian-American psychiatrist in the U.S. Army has been charged.
Humam al-Balawi was said to be carrying information about Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two, himself a surgeon who was born to a prominent Egyptian family.
Mohamed Atta of 9/11, who was an Egyptian urban planner who had been working in Germany - these are not the wretched of the earth. What essentially is the grievance that draws them to al-Qaida?
Groups Recruiting Well-Educated Terrorists : NPR

b. …men who belonged to violent Islamist groups active over the past few decades (some in jail, some not). Had those groups reflected the working-age populations of their countries, engineers would have made up about 3.5 percent of the membership. Instead, nearly 20 percent of the militants had engineering degrees. When Gambetta and Hertog looked at only the militants whose education was known for certain to have gone beyond high school, close to half (44 percent) had trained in engineering.
Today's Highly Educated Terrorists | The National Interest Blog
Today s Highly Educated Terrorists The National Interest Blog

c.Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri received his master's degree in surgery from Cairo University....
http://www.biography.com/people/ayman-al-zawahiri-241182


d. Nidal Hasan, Abdulmutallab and Humam al-Balawi are jihadists who were educated and came from privileged middle- and upper-class backgrounds. Hasan was an American-trained U. S. Army doctor, Abdulmutallab was a London engineering student and the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, and double-agent Dr. Humam al-Balawi was a member of the Jordanian professional class.
The Educated Muslim Terrorist FrontPage Magazine


e. "One piece of the Krueger-Maleckova evidence involves 129 members of Hezbollah who died in action, mostly against Israel, from 1982 to 1994. Hezbollah is now designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Biographical information from the Hezbollah newspaper al-Ahd indicates that the fighters who died were, on average, more educated and less impoverished than the Lebanese population of comparable age and regional origin."
The Myth That Poverty Breeds Terrorism - Businessweek


Starting to get the point.....how does civilization protect itself from these primitives?


I think you know.

 

[Jroc]

11. So here's where we stand today: all the "common knowledge" explanations...you know, like poverty causes criminality, wrong.

...neither democracy nor economic advances quell the desire for jihad.....

Only one more 'plan'....what about education?
You know...if they were more educated, well....they would realize the error of their ways.
Right?

Not right.


a. "More details are emerging about Humam al-Balawi, the man who blew up seven intelligence agents in Afghanistan. By education and professional status, the Jordanian doctor is typical of recent suicidal attackers. The man accused of trying to blow up a plane on Christmas Day is a Nigerian graduate of the University of London. In the Fort Hood shootings, a Palestinian-American psychiatrist in the U.S. Army has been charged.
Humam al-Balawi was said to be carrying information about Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two, himself a surgeon who was born to a prominent Egyptian family.
Mohamed Atta of 9/11, who was an Egyptian urban planner who had been working in Germany - these are not the wretched of the earth. What essentially is the grievance that draws them to al-Qaida?
Groups Recruiting Well-Educated Terrorists : NPR

b. …men who belonged to violent Islamist groups active over the past few decades (some in jail, some not). Had those groups reflected the working-age populations of their countries, engineers would have made up about 3.5 percent of the membership. Instead, nearly 20 percent of the militants had engineering degrees. When Gambetta and Hertog looked at only the militants whose education was known for certain to have gone beyond high school, close to half (44 percent) had trained in engineering.
Today's Highly Educated Terrorists | The National Interest Blog
Today s Highly Educated Terrorists The National Interest Blog

c.Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri received his master's degree in surgery from Cairo University....
http://www.biography.com/people/ayman-al-zawahiri-241182


d. Nidal Hasan, Abdulmutallab and Humam al-Balawi are jihadists who were educated and came from privileged middle- and upper-class backgrounds. Hasan was an American-trained U. S. Army doctor, Abdulmutallab was a London engineering student and the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, and double-agent Dr. Humam al-Balawi was a member of the Jordanian professional class.
The Educated Muslim Terrorist FrontPage Magazine


e. "One piece of the Krueger-Maleckova evidence involves 129 members of Hezbollah who died in action, mostly against Israel, from 1982 to 1994. Hezbollah is now designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Biographical information from the Hezbollah newspaper al-Ahd indicates that the fighters who died were, on average, more educated and less impoverished than the Lebanese population of comparable age and regional origin."
The Myth That Poverty Breeds Terrorism - Businessweek


Starting to get the point.....how does civilization protect itself from these primitives?


I think you know.

Lets not forget Mohamed Attta....

Atta was born on September 1, 1968 in Kafr el-Sheikh, located in Egypt's Nile delta region.[8] His father, Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta, was a lawyer, educated in both sharia and civil law. His mother, Bouthayna Mohamed Mustapha Sheraqi, came from a wealthy farming and trading family and was also educated. Bouthayna and Mohamed married when she was 14, via an arranged marriage. The family had few relatives on the father's side and kept a distance from Bouthayna's family. In-laws characterized Atta's father as "austere, strict, and private," and neighbors considered the family reclusive.[10] Atta was the only son, but he had two older sisters who are both well-educated and successful in their careers—one as a medical doctor and the other as a professor.[11]
When Atta was ten, his family moved to the Cairo neighborhood of Abdeen, located near the center of the city. Atta's father continued to keep the family private, and did not allow Atta to socialize with other neighborhood kids. Atta spent most of his time at home studying, excelling in school.[12][13] In 1985, Atta entered Cairo University, where he studied engineering. As one of the highest-scoring students, Atta was admitted into the very selective architecture program during his senior year. In addition to his regular courses, Atta studied English at the American University in Cairo.[14] In 1990, Atta graduated with a degree in architecture,[15] and joined the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Engineers Syndicate organization.[8] For several months after graduating, Atta worked at the Urban Development Center in Cairo, where he worked on architectural, planning, and building design.[16] In 1990, Atta's family moved into an 11th floor apartment in Giza

.

At the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, Atta studied under the guidance of the department chair, Dittmar Machule, who specialized in the Middle East.[23] Atta was concerned about modern development and the construction of high-rise buildings in Cairo and other ancient cities in the Middle East. He believed that the large, impersonal, and often ugly apartment blocks built in the 1960s and 1970s had ruined old neighborhoods, and took away privacy and dignity from people. Atta's own family moved into such an apartment block in 1990, which to him was "a shabby symbol of Egypt's haphazard attempts to modernize and its shameless embrace of the West."[15] For his thesis, Atta focused his studies on the ancient city of Aleppo in Syria. He explored the history of Aleppo's urban landscapes and the general themes of the conflict between Arab civilization and modernity. Atta criticized how the modern skyscrapers and development projects in Aleppo were disrupting the fabric of that city by blocking community streets and altering the skyline.

Mohamed Atta - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia