Confront
OK. Here's my point. I do not advocate sitting around on our hands until every last one of us has had his or her throat cut with a scimitar. Trobinett and GunnyL speak of extermination as a solution. They may be comfortable with that, but I am not.
Jawboning governments in the middle east doesn't seem to have had much effect. Some suggest that commerce is the key. If people want something badly, they are not going to kill those who provide what they want. But I can't think of too many things we have that they want except Bevis & Butthead rerums and Madonna videos.
For once, I really have no ideas of my own how to do this. That's why I am trying to understand what others are suggesting.
To find a solution to muslim violence, you have to understand its origins. Martyrdom is not an actual muslim concept, it was created by Iran to rally the people to fight against Iraq. The first suicide bomber in the middle east was a 13 year old Iranian boy. He strapped bombs to himself and blew up an Iraqi tank.
The martyr concept helped Iran win the war and became a very popular philosophy in Iran. Iranians exported the idea to Lebanon and Syria. Yet, it was still a tactic of warfare. It was used against Israeli military targets, the U.S. embassy that housed CIA operatives, and the U.S. marine base. Hezbollah was created, and practically made martyrdom a religion of its own. Shrines as big as temples were created to honor the "martyrs". A secular Syrian nationalist group also used suicide bombers against Israel. An idea that was once strictly practiced by shi'ite radicals was spreading.
Palestinians adopted the tactic as well. After an Israeli mad killed 29 Palestinian civilians, Hamas responded with the first ever suicide bombing attack on a civilian target: a bus. The suicide bomber became the weapon of choice for the Palestinian movement.
From there, suicide attacks sprouted in Russia, India, New York, and London.
In Iraq, the suicide bomber is used against fellow muslims, as Shi'ites and Sunnis battle for the country.
So how do you stop suicide bombings? You can not eliminate violence in muslim community, there is violence in every community. So we must stop the violence against Western civilians.
1) Recognize Palestine. The tactics used by Palestinians are deplorable, but their cause is not. The U.S. has to be objective in world affairs. This would be a way to express that the U.S. is not against Islam.
2) Rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. We fucked it up, we have to be responsible for its future. It will cost a lot of money, but it is important to show the world that we are not in the business of killing and leaving. When we leave, these countries must have order and infrastructure.
3) Give aid to Lebanon and Palestine. Again, demonstrates that we want peace. Both countries are in poor condition. When people are living with nothing in refugee camps, extremism becomes tempting. When people are given proper living conditions and education, they can learn what their religion is really about. A Palestinian in a Israeli prison said: "Every Palestinian has graduated from the university of occupation". The occupation must end, so must the living standards that accompany it.
4) Promote social reforms in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has a vast population of young, unemployed men with educations from extremist schools. This does not bode well for the Western world. The wealth disparity in Saudi Arabia needs to be corrected so there is not such a large poor population that can be easily manipulated.
If you did not feel like reading this whole post, know this: Terrorists want muslims to hate the west, they want the west to hate muslims so that muslims hate the west. Stop hating muslims and you stop the cycle. We need to convert these people not to a different religion, but to a better way of life.
