Posted on 10/09/2001 6:11:37 AM PDT by Pokey78
Since the September 11th bombings, a persistent question that belabors Americans is why do they hate us so much? From the president to media outlets a chorus of voices has been at pains delineating between Osama bin Laden and Islam. The former is vengeful and pre-modern, the latter peaceful and tolerant. Such demarcations miss the point. Bin Laden and his cohort form a specific subculture of Islam that has been evolving in the murky terrain of Southwest Asia. This species of Islam views violence and terror as legitimate tools against the infidel West. As such, bin Laden is not an exceptional case but representative of a genre and a new radical religious movement.
While much of the international community's terrorism concerns have focused on the Arab world, Southwest Asia has eclipsed the Middle East as the epicenter of terrorism. During the past two decades, a pernicious subculture of religious radicalism has been permeating Pakistan's theological schools (madrassahs) that act as the country's primary system of education. Such schools feature fiery clerics exhorting the virtues of martyrdom, encouraging the exegesis of theological texts pledging celestial rewards for suicide bombings, and promising ample financial support coming from Saudi millionaires. The messages of militant Islam and the lure of scholarships made such schools attractive to the region's impoverished young seeking a sense of mission and a means of subsistence. Moreover, the student body was not limited to young Pakistanis but Afghans, Chechens, Chinese, Mongolians, and Central Asians. In turn, Pakistani-trained clerics and missionaries went forth into the former Soviet bloc and Eastern Europe to begin work among the Muslim populations. An international jihad movement was gestating beyond the glare of the international community that would soon be puzzled by the intensity and scope of the new claimants of radicalism.
Among the most illustrious graduates of these centers were the Taliban. Young men from the Afghan refugee camps schooled in Pakistan (the very term "Taliban" refers to their student origins) were infused with religious fervor and captivated by a leadership shrouded in mysticism who preached an ideal utopia that could be created in Afghanistan under the rule of righteousness. The disciplined cadres that were produced undertook a relentless and successful invasion of Afghanistan, ending up in control of some 90% of the country.
The victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan marked the first major triumph of this new form of "international jihad," combining the foot soldiers provided by displaced Afghan refugees, the combat and organizational experience of Middle Eastern Islamist fighters, logistical support from Pakistan's intelligence services, and funding from the wealthy members of the Gulf Arab princely class. Whatever their shortcomings, the Taliban and their Arab compatriots soon became the purveyors of a new model of revolutionary Islam whose ferocity would soon be eerily felt.
Into this inflamed arena stepped in the Saudi-born master terrorist Osama bin Laden and his terror network, al Qaeda. In a sense, bin Laden was part of a larger movement of Islamic radicals defeated and expelled from the Middle East, seeking a new venue for demonstrating their distaste for the United States and the moderate Arab regimes. However, bin Laden's wealth and charisma gave the movement of refugee radicals shape and content. The nexus between al Qaeda and Taliban is easily decipherable, as the two share an ideology and a sense of commitment. The more murky set of connections is the one between bin Laden and Pakistan's intelligence operatives who appreciated his assistance to their cause in Kashmir while the retired generals made ample money selling arms to bin Laden. A diverse and complex network based on ideological amity, strategic convenience, and profit motive was born and became the backbone of the most destructive if ill-understood subcultures of hate.
As such, America's enemies are not just the rulers of a strife-torn Afghanistan or a master terrorist, but a specific culture. In the coming weeks, the United States may militarily succeed in dislodging the Taliban from power and even assassinating bin Laden, but so long as the international jihad movement is alive, Americans are at risk. To combat this type of culturally based terrorism, the United States has to compel its allies, particularly, Pakistan, to close down the radical madrassahs and eliminate the financial network that sustains them. But the U.S. also has to move beyond dealing with generals and princes and compel the region's clergy that have long winked at their radical brethren who have used religion to legitimize suicide bombings and demonization of the West to move to the forefront of the antiterrorism struggle. Only the region's clergy can negate the theological arguments of the messengers of hate. If Islam is the sublime faith that Peter Jennings insists on, then this will be an easy task for the Muslim world's clerics.
Ray Takeyh, research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
The specific culture is called Islam, and the theology is the message of hate:
Medina Suras
The Chapter of Women
[Chapters from the Koran]
The Harvard Classics 190914But if there befalls you grace from God, he would sayas though there were no friendship between you and himO would that I had been with thee to attain this mighty happiness! Let those then fight in Gods way who sell this life of the world for the next; and whoso fights in Gods way, then, be he killed or be he victorious, we will give him a mighty hire.
What ails you that ye do not fight in Gods way, and for the weak men and women and children, who say, Lord, bring us out of this town 19 of oppressive folk, and make for us from Thee a patron, and make for us from Thee a help?
Those who believe fight in the way of God; and those who disbelieve fight in the way of Tâghût; fight ye then against the friends of Satan, verily, Satans tricks are weak.
Do ye not see those to whom it is said, Restrain your hands, and be steadfast in prayer and give alms; and when it is prescribed for them to fight then a band of them fear men, as though it were the fear of God or a still stronger fear, and they say, O our Lord! why hast thou prescribed for us to fight, couldst thou not let us abide till our near appointed time? Say, The enjoyment of this world is but slight, and the next is better for him who fears;but they shall not be wronged a straw.
... Why are ye two parties about the hypocrites, when God hath overturned them for what they earned? Do ye wish to guide those whom God hath led astray? Whoso God hath led astray ye shall not surely find for him a path. They would fain that ye misbelieve as they misbelieve, that ye might be alike; take ye not patrons from among them until they too flee in Gods way; but if they turn their backs, then seize them and kill them wheresoever ye find them, and take from them neither patron nor help,save those who reach a people betwixt whom and you is an allianceor who come to you while their bosoms prevent them from fighting you or fighting their own people. But had God pleased He would have given you dominion over them, and they would surely have fought you. But if they retire from you and do not fight you, and offer you peace,then God hath given you no way against them.
Ye will find others who seek for quarter from you, and quarter from their own people; whenever they return to sedition they shall be overturned therein: but if they retire not from you, nor offer you peace, nor restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wheresoever ye find them;over these we have made for you manifest power.
Agree. I no longer give a whatever why they hate us. The truth is they hate everyone else who does not belong to their cult. Being hated by them is not a distinction at all, and means nothing.
Hating us has become THEIR problem, effective 11 September.
F__k them.
I can't answer why "they" "hate" us.
I can report on why bin Laden and his followers attacked.
1). They see western culture defiling Islamic holy sites (such as Saudi Arabia) and they want Christian and western influences removed.
2). They don't like our support of Israel and their treatment of he Palestinians and the disregard of their land claims.
We can argue whether bin Laden and his follower have valid points but those are the two main reasons which they themselves have stated repeatedly.
This incessant speculation of why they hate us is more propaganda than a thoughtful examination of the evidence. We know why, we just have to formulate an appropriate response to the above reasons, both with our military and foreign policy.
The Islamo-fascists will not rest until they have conquered the world in the name of Allah.
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