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May 10, 2006
Radical Islam is globalization for losers
Topics: Understanding IslamJonah Goldberg calls radical Islam, "globalization for losers", and says goes to the heart of the reality of the war on terrorism:
(...) Radical Islam is globalization for losers. It appeals to those left out of modernization, industrialization and prosperity, particularly to young men desperate for order, meaning and pride amid the chaos of globalization. Radical Islam provides it, but at a terrible price.Read more, as you scratch your head and wonder in amazement why so much of the world "just doesn't get it" ...(...) ... one new wrinkle in bin Laden's diatribe deserves more attention, as it illuminates the nature of the West's struggle against radical Islam. "I call on the mujahedin and their supporters in Sudan ... and the Arabian Peninsula to prepare all that is necessary to wage a long-term war against the crusaders in western Sudan," bin Laden declared.
(...) The crusaders in question are United Nations peacekeepers, who aren't even in Sudan yet but who are going to stop genocide there - we hope. Bin Laden suspects a Western plot to install U.S. bases and destroy Islam in Sudan, and he wants to fend off the U.N., which he calls an "infidel body" and "a tool of crusader-Zionist resolutions."
(...) If he thinks the U.N. is a tool of the Zionists, clearly he needs to get out of his cave more.
(...) Too many intellectuals and commentators take the ignorant and condescending view that because jihadism is exotic, it is also "authentic." On the right, this often translates into the view that all strains of Islam are alike - and equally dangerous. And on the left, we get the usual knee-jerk defense of any seemingly "indigenous" foreign movement that casts America as a global villain. The reality is that in the war on terrorism, America is on the side of freedom and diversity. Bin Laden & Co. are the real crusaders.
Interesting related reading: BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, MAY 3, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Many observers see the rise of radical Islam as a response to a lack of economic opportunity or a defense against encroaching secular values from the West due to globalization. Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa sees the situation differently. An expert on Islam, he believes that the radical Muslim movements are reactions to the failed secular Arab nationalist states of the 20th century, whose leaders are vying to become the next Sultan or caliph who will restore an Islamic empire that will wage jihad.
Posted by Richard at May 10, 2006 3:35 PM
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- Radical Islam is globalization for losers - May 10, 2006
