1549
Active Member
It's not about Iran. It's not about hating the West. It's not about what you are claiming. It's about Islam, pure and simple.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013911.php
That man is just as foolish for two main reasons:
1) He says that poverty is not an issue. Poverty allows for radical thinking at the universities where middle class muslims are taught. If the middle east was not poor, there would be no calls "for a return to glory". If their was no poverty in the muslim world, the huge unemployed male population of the muslim world would be working, rather than sitting at home in despair...needing a cause. Last but not least: if this poverty did not exist, the arab world would not accept terror attacks. No mass of people would risk the sure economic ruin that would follow. A strange irony: Iraq had a rather substantial middle class (for a country in that region at least) prior to the invasion, it is no coincidence that Iraqis did not participate in the terror movement before the invasion.
2) This former terrorist also claims that America needs to stop saying "what are we doing wrong?". He goes on to say that issues like Palestine and Iraq do not matter. Of course he is wrong. As long as Palestine contains occupied muslims and as long as Iraq is in disarray, other muslims will feel resentment toward the foreign occupiers. For him to deny such a fact completely defies his argument of muslims as an imperial people. How would imperialists feel about their own land being occupied?
Improve Iraq and Palestine; opinions may slowly shift in the muslim world.
The key to the whole issue of terrorism is to win over the middle of the road muslim. Right now they may have some sympathy for the muslims. The average muslim does not have a great life, terrorists appear to be killing themselves to give all of Islam some pride. Improve the lives of average muslims...restore their pride, and all support for terrorism will weaken.
Kath: the former terrorist did not generalize all muslims as violent imperialists. Islam is not the problem, a religion alone is not capable of breeding so much violence. Social conditions must allow for the religion to be manipulated.
Overall it was a pitiful link. The commentary conflicted with itself and with common sense.