The real cause of terrorism
The terrorist attacks in London have once again prompted people to ask why terrorism occurrs--what's its root cause. Pundits in the media are constantly tossing around a range of suggestions: the Iraq war, Bush's neocon foreign policy, poverty, a lack of democracy and core democratic values, the perception of historical oppression of Muslim people by Western powers. And while all of these cause some level of anger in many parts of the Islamic world, none of them are the cause of terrorism.
Simply put, terrorists kill others (and themselves) because of their unwavering devotion to Islam. Their religious precepts are grounded in the teachings of the Koran which mandate that the faithful to allah must wage a holy war against the infidels. And the definition of an infidel is not hard to find. The Koran is saturated with references to Jews and Christians and how they incur the wrath of allah--and how this wrath justifies their killing.
The Muslim who killed Theo Van Gogh--the Dutch filmmaker who documented some of the horrors of Islam--has said just as much in court.
We would be far shrewder as a nation in fighting terror if we understood, unlike President Bush, that Islam is NOT a religion of peace.
UPDATE: I found this column by Mark Steyn, arguing that Islam does incubate terrorism.
Simply put, terrorists kill others (and themselves) because of their unwavering devotion to Islam. Their religious precepts are grounded in the teachings of the Koran which mandate that the faithful to allah must wage a holy war against the infidels. And the definition of an infidel is not hard to find. The Koran is saturated with references to Jews and Christians and how they incur the wrath of allah--and how this wrath justifies their killing.
The Muslim who killed Theo Van Gogh--the Dutch filmmaker who documented some of the horrors of Islam--has said just as much in court.
"I can assure you that one day, should I be set free, I would do exactly the same, exactly the same," he said, speaking slowly in sometimes halted Dutch.This article briefly recounts his crime:
He said he felt an obligation to Van Gogh's mother Anneke, present in court, to speak, but offered no sympathy.
"I have to admit I do not feel for you, I do not feel your pain, I cannot -- I don't know what it is like to lose a child," he said as Van Gogh's family and friends looked on.
"I cannot feel for you ... because I believe you are an infidel," he added.
"I acted out of conviction -- not because I hated your son."
Several months before he was killed Van Gogh, a distant relative of 19th-century painter Vincent van Gogh, had directed a short film called "Submission", which linked abuse of women to Islam.
A letter was left on his body that included quotations from the Koran and threats to several Dutch politicians, including Somali-born lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script for "Submission".
We would be far shrewder as a nation in fighting terror if we understood, unlike President Bush, that Islam is NOT a religion of peace.
UPDATE: I found this column by Mark Steyn, arguing that Islam does incubate terrorism.
5 Comments:
You, and the Telegraph article you linked to, make a very good point in your criticism. I remember watching BBC the day of the attacks when this police chief cat was saying "These terrorists are not muslims, because muslimes are peaceful!" and I thought, wow, now aren't you the expert.
GetReligion has posted a couple of things about this issue, especially insofar as it relates to the way that journalists are covering it, one here and another here.
But I think you may be simplifying the issue a little bit; is it any more appropriate for you to say, across-the-board, "Islam is a religion of terror" than it is for the pundits to say "Islam is a religion of peace"?
Maybe it's fine, though I wouldn't say it myself. The difference, maybe, for us, is that we take Islam seriously, on its own terms, as a system that makes serious claims about reality. Most of the press and most of the politicians aren't able to talk about religion like that; to them religion is just another category of culture that can be simply defined and labelled. We know that it's not.
Hey Jordan-
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Aloha!
Sam,
In fairness, I never said that "Islam is a religion of terror." I did say that it is not a religion of peace. To say that Islam is a religion of terror to me suggests that one would be saying that the chief goal, the overriding concern of the religion is terror. I think that terrorism is a large component of Islam as practiced by those who read the Koran in a normal, straightforward way. But that's not all that Islam is, even to those who would desire to die in jihad. Unfortunately, those who read the Koran in a literal way have a disproportionate sway over the masses as opposed to the "moderate" factions of the religion.
But the fundamental point I was trying to make isn't even what's going on in the Arab streets. What's important for Americans to remember is that we're in reality not fighting a geopolitical or economic war against those who happen to be jihadists. We're fighting jihadists warring against us in the name of (and with the sanction of) their religion. And by sanction, the text of the Koran should suffice to demonstrate it. But if not, look to the many Islamic leaders who preach jihad and the masses that embrace it.
I think as usual we by and large agree on substance but would choose to word those principles we agree on in different ways. I've always favored a more blunt approach in making a point--especially when I feel strongly about an issue as I do here. I especially appreciated your point at the end about how we can never really expect the world (specifically the media and politicians who don't recognize the necessary primacy of religion) to undertand reality claims and their significance.
DC,
You know better.
Your point simplifies things too much. A five year old lies to his mom because of his total depravity. A terrorists kills because of his total depravity. Of course at one basic level both of those statements are true and both of those sins are linked theologically.
When we go to McDonalds for dinner we go there because we're hungry. When we go to Nick's for dinner we go there because we're hungry. But we also go to one or the other for entirely different reasons. What's so wrong with saying that Islamic terrorism is grounded in Islam and has to be understood as such. And it's not ridiculous to single out Islam for terrorism because Islam is in fact fueling more terrorism on a global scale than any other religion. Failure to recognize that is a fundamental failure to recognize reality and the true nature of the beast. This doesn't mean that there aren't horrors stemming from people claiming Christianity or Judaism. It's just that Christian and Jewish terrorists aren't currently bombing London, Madrid, Bali, New York, Washington, Casablanca, Jerusalem, Telaviv, and Baghdad.
Theologically, yeah, the IRA and Jihadists are equally problematic. But from any other point of view its absolutely absurd to claim you can equate the two. Nothing in magnitude that's going on today measures up in terms of destructiveness and the threat to life and security as does Islamic terrorism. And given that, its vital that we understand what's really driving it. And to say that what's driving it is the same thing that's driving a five year old to lie doesn't really offer much help as to how to deal with the problem. It seems to be a profound and deep approach to the problem. But it really is a sheepish way out of grappling with the underlying issues that put every Jew and Christian in the world at risk.
Of course we're all equally capable of the darkest sins. But you have to ask why Muslims--and not Christains and Jews--are committing most of the acts of terrorism today.
Honestly? Because we fulfilled our quota a few centuries back.
It's a wave of violence taking its form in terrorism. I may give you that of all systems today -- organizations, religions, whatever -- Islam may be the primary source of terrorists, but it's a form of violence with a specific system, and nothing that Christianity et al haven't had to face before.
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