Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
Ideology just does not 'radicalize' a populace, government does. Ideology is just the nudge to get them moving in a certain direction to do something about it.
The problem with this formulation is that most of the rage is not directed at their governments. It's directed at perceived aggression against Muslims, Muslim territory, and Islam in general. It's directed generically at "the West" and at the US as the most visible, powerful symbol of the west. A great deal of it traces back not to frustration with their own governments, but to a culture of what Bernard Lewis calls "aggressive self-pity", to some extent reaching across the Muslim world but strongest in the Arab community. It draws on the deep past of gradual European encroachment and fading Muslim influence, on colonialism and neocolonialism, on the situation with Israel, on recent American actions, and a great deal more. It's a pretty toxic stew and it cannot be reduced solely to misgovernment.

If Saudi Arabia were transformed tomorrow into a democracy, the people who hate Israel, the US, and the west today would still hate them tomorrow, and Saudis would still fund and join AQ's efforts to drive the infidel out of the land of the faithful.