Terrorists: Origin of the Species (stolen from Laurence Simon)
My challenge was to try and read through this piece without wanting to vomit. I managed to do that, but only just. When the fourth paragraph gives you this $#&@, you know that objectivity has gone straight out the window:
The Iranian revolution was actually a reflection of a growing self-assertion by the Ummah of its capacity to provide solutions for its various problems from within its rich and long cultural and intellectual traditions.
Well, not exactly, y'all. How about "The Iranian revolution was actually fomented by gangs of illiterate, angry thugs who used religion as a pretext to wrest political power from a thoroughly corrupt, cruel, and inept regime. The revolution then proceeded to destroy most of Iran's long cultural and intellectual traditions."? I think THAT is probably a bit closer to the truth, no?
If you like that, you'll LOVE this:
The West was (and still is) at a loss to address these problems from within its intellectual traditions. The burgeoning Islamic renaissance was seen as a disturbing challenge to the West’s hegemony. This was also, after all, the time when Soviet-style communism (the West’s alter ego) was starting to come apart at the seams.
How does subjugating women, banning political and theological dissent, and forcibly suppressing freedom of thought and expression qualify as a "Renaissance"??
Of course, now that the author is on a roll, how about this gem:
The West decided to try an old method developed during the colonial era, which is to promote and support fringe groups within the Islamic world to act as destabilizing forces. The idea being to fight Islam with distorted versions of Islam in order to sow confusion among the Muslims. An example of this was in Syria, when they promoted a sect called the Nusairi, which collaborated with colonial forces and continues to rule Syria to this day. The Druze sect in Lebanon and the Ismailis on the Indian subcontinent are other examples of this method.
Now I'm beginning to see how those in the Arab world have come to believe some of crap that Arab media puts out. It's the "Big Lie" theory, which al-Jazeera has used over and over again: repeat something often enough, and it will become the truth to those who have no access to no other news sources.
Until political systems based on Fundamentalist Islam can come to grips with the brutality and ignorance their system breeds and fosters, governments will never be able to do anything but whine about the West. They will have no hope of catching up economically or politically, because too much of what little energy they have will go towards keeping their subjects in line (and whining about their miserable lot in life).
Governments and media in the Middle East have got to be able to understand that their problems are of their own creation. THEY are the ones oppressing their people. THEY are the ones putting down free speech and expression. THEY are the ones enforcing a vision of Islam that has nothing to do with true Islam at the end of a gun barrel.
The US is not the problem here. We may be a convenient foil for governments to use to deflect attention from internal problems, but we did not create the oppressive, Third World conditions that brutal dictatorships foster. Fix your own problems. Terrorism against the West is certainly not going to make things any better, and it's certainly not going to win any friends.
Perhaps if Arab leaders would look inward, they would find some answers. Of course, that would mean risking their own positions of power- not something corrupt despots are wont to do.
