RADICAL ISLAM
One of the current mantras of those who would tend to characterise themselves as progressive or left is the ‘fact’ that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the cause for the radicalisation of Muslim youth and the resultant acts of mass murder committed in London and Madrid. This particular ‘truth’ has become so embedded that anyone who casts doubt upon it becomes immediately open to ridicule and open contempt. However if you point out that the 9/11 attacks occurred prior to either of these military campaigns the rules suddenly change and you are informed that Israel’s repression of the Palestinians and the situating of American troops on Saudi soil are the catalyst. No mention is made of the liberation of Kosovo or, somewhat the belated efforts by the Americans to halt Serb aggression against the predominantly Muslim Bosnian state.
To understand the growth of radical Islam and its related offshoot Islamic terrorism one needs to go back way beyond 9/11 to the late 1960’s and the failure of Arab nationalism to meet the needs of its population at home and it’s humiliation on the world stage. The sharpest internal critique of these failures came from radical Islam, moreover it was a critique rooted in an idealised past, a time when Arab Muslim civilisation was predominant. It presented a closed Manichean world view, a struggle to the death between Dar-ul-Islam, or the lands where Islam prevailed, allied with the worldwide Muslim community or Umma against a world of unbelievers.*
The appeal of such a world view for those who feel themselves powerless humiliated or just plain inadequate is obvious and it is hardly surprising that this Islamacist ideology has gained fervent followers within the Muslim community across thew world, including Europe and to a lesser extent the US and Canada. Long before 9/11 or the Iraq war Islamacist terrorism was tearing Algeria apart and bombs were exploding on the Paris Metro.
Irrespective of later events in Iraq, sooner or later, in this country we were going to have to face a violent manifestation of radical Islam. Those who believe that such unpleasant realities could be avoided if only we were ‘nicer’ to the Muslim world are naive. However it is also convenient for the anti war movement as well as the appeasers and apologists for radical Islam to pretend that all our problems began with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Does this all mean that recruiters for Al Quida and radical Islam do not use the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or for that matter US policy toward the Palestinians? Of course it does not. What it does mean is that regardless of US and British Policy post 9/11 there already existed an ideology that would, sooner or later, lead to acts of violence against civilians in this country
*Further information on all of this is easily accessible on the Internet, simply Google Sayyid Qutb.
To understand the growth of radical Islam and its related offshoot Islamic terrorism one needs to go back way beyond 9/11 to the late 1960’s and the failure of Arab nationalism to meet the needs of its population at home and it’s humiliation on the world stage. The sharpest internal critique of these failures came from radical Islam, moreover it was a critique rooted in an idealised past, a time when Arab Muslim civilisation was predominant. It presented a closed Manichean world view, a struggle to the death between Dar-ul-Islam, or the lands where Islam prevailed, allied with the worldwide Muslim community or Umma against a world of unbelievers.*
The appeal of such a world view for those who feel themselves powerless humiliated or just plain inadequate is obvious and it is hardly surprising that this Islamacist ideology has gained fervent followers within the Muslim community across thew world, including Europe and to a lesser extent the US and Canada. Long before 9/11 or the Iraq war Islamacist terrorism was tearing Algeria apart and bombs were exploding on the Paris Metro.
Irrespective of later events in Iraq, sooner or later, in this country we were going to have to face a violent manifestation of radical Islam. Those who believe that such unpleasant realities could be avoided if only we were ‘nicer’ to the Muslim world are naive. However it is also convenient for the anti war movement as well as the appeasers and apologists for radical Islam to pretend that all our problems began with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Does this all mean that recruiters for Al Quida and radical Islam do not use the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or for that matter US policy toward the Palestinians? Of course it does not. What it does mean is that regardless of US and British Policy post 9/11 there already existed an ideology that would, sooner or later, lead to acts of violence against civilians in this country
*Further information on all of this is easily accessible on the Internet, simply Google Sayyid Qutb.
