Islam, Islamism, Conflict & Terrorism (a collection)

[Schmedlap]

they pretty much destroy the correlation between religious fundamentalism and extremist violence that is so chic in the west. Basically, in the Islamic world, violent extremists aren't particularly demonstrably religious.

In my opinion, that perceived correlation is a view crafted for consumption by the lowest common denominator. It seems to be the counterpoint to an equally invalid view that extremists hate us because America's foreign policy is dominated by neo-conservatives, even though the fervent disdain for America began at least as early as the 1970s, which was hardly the heydey of neo-con foreign policy. Jihadists have been chanting, and attempting to cause, death to America through the administrations of Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush - four administrations whose foreign policies differed significantly.

My understanding, and what I percieve to be a fair consensus opinion, is that jihadists are motivated more by politics than by religion and more by broad anti-western fervor than with any opposition toward a particular brand of US foreign policy. "Political Islam" is a pretty good description, since the fervent opposition to the US is political and wrapped in a veil of pseudo-Islam for the purpose of perceived legitimacy. If the entire US converted to Islam, they would still hate us. But, if our government seized all of our multi-national corporations, liquidated their assets, taxed all of its citizens into oblivion, and then distributed the proceeds from that wealth confiscation to the rest of the world, and we apologized for being successful, then we might make some progress. (I'm not suggesting we do that.) We are, and will be, hated because of the degree of influence that we have upon the world, regardless of how we exert that influence. It has nothing to do with freedom and little to do with religion. But being hated often comes with the territory when in a leadership position. How many leaders have gone into combat with the attitude of, "I don't care if you hate me - I just care that we accomplish the mission and you go home alive"? I think the most important question is not, "how do we become less hated?" It is "how do we make the world less hospitable to terrorist networks?"

they question effectively the presumption that Muslim women want western-styled women's liberation (they use the terms "libertine" versus "liberation" to make their point.)

Check out the latest GPS podcast with Fareed Zakaria. He interviews the queen of Jordan and talks about this. Aside from being very easy on the eyes, it is also an interesting discussion on this topic.