Major Hasan Embraces Tradition
November 12, 2009: Major Nidal Malik Hasan's murder of 13 people at Fort Hood on November 5th was the act of an Islamic terrorist. The U.S. government is trying to explain it as just the act of a lone madman, but that's what terrorist attacks often are. Moreover, to try and depict Hasan's act as anything but Islamic terrorism ignores Islamic history. One should also note that Islamic terrorists worldwide are hailing the massacre as an act of Islamic terrorism. Who are you going to believe? Try believing history.
The main recruiter for Islamic terrorism has always been conservative Islamic clerics, especially in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Saudi brand of Islam, Wahhabism, has always stressed hatred for infidels (non-Moslems) and forcible conversion of everyone, everywhere, to Islam. Religious hatred is nothing new, but Wahhabism is practiced by many Saudis made rich by half a century of increasing oil wealth. Everyone is urged to join the struggle ("jihad") for making the world Moslem. You can do this as part of a group, or, as Nidal Hasan did, as an individual.
This radicalism comes along every few generations. By the 1980s, many Moslems had become disillusioned with socialism and democracy. All along, Islamic conservatives had been suggesting the “Islamic way.” This meant using Islam as a form of government, as well as a religion. This is how Islam worked back in the beginning. Unfortunately, it didn’t work back then. This failure was explained away (as someone else’s fault, or not doing it right, take your pick). And so began the popularity of radical Islam. When you’re on a mission from God, the ends justify the means. It was a small step from accepting the need for an Islamic form of government, and then getting behind terrorism in the name of God. Besides, Arab armies had not been able to defeat infidel armies for a long, long time. Terrorism and the pure hearts of suicidal Islamic warriors would have to do.
True believers selectively pick out Islamic teachings that favor their goals. Take, for example, the killing of Moslems. This is explained away by believing that any Moslem that does not agree with your radical view, is not a true Moslem and must be killed. Any Moslems who do agree with you, and get killed by your bomb anyway, are simply "involuntary martyrs." Most Moslems do not believe these twisted interpretations of the Koran, but are unwilling to step up and stop the radicals. Nearly all of the 3,500 Moslems in the U.S. military accept that there are evil Moslems out there, and have no qualms about killing them. They see Iraqi and Afghan Moslems doing the same thing.
So where's the problem? It's simply that Islamic radicals have always been a part of Islam. They have been the main reason for the backwardness of Islamic countries. A thousand years ago, it was the Islamic radicals who halted the work of Islamic scientists. This continues, with the current Islamic radicals opposing schools that don't put the main emphasis on religion, or teach girls at all. There are four times more women Nobel laureates from the West than Islamic laureates of any gender. Thus Islamic radicalism is tolerated in the Islamic community, as is Islamic terrorism, at least if it is only directed against kaffirs (non-Moslems).
Dreams of world conquest are also nothing new for Moslems either. Wahhabism demanded it, and pronounced the mission an order from God. Wahhabism also encouraged suicide missions, by assuring those who did a wonderful time in the afterlife. While Wahhabism (subsidized by the Saudi royal family, as a form of extortion payment to radical clerics) controlled the education of most young Saudis, what really got the Islamic revolution going was al Jazeera and the general failure of Arab society during the last half century. This combination of mass media and social failure is how religious hatred and terrorism became hugely popular throughout the Moslem world.
But one of the main inspirations for the current outbreak of Islamic terrorism is the failure of Arab, and to a lesser extent Moslem, society in the last half century. Actually, Islam has been an economic and political disaster for centuries. But for a long time colonialism and the Ottoman empire gave the Islamic world a comfortable excuse for their problems. But the Ottoman empire has been gone since 1918, and colonialism completely disappeared by the 1960s. Despite over a trillion dollars in oil wealth, and proximity to large markets for products, the Arab economies have gone downhill over the last half century. Political progress has been similarly retrograde, with tyrants and dictators being the most common form of government. Same with education, science and just about everything else. No progress. Except terrorism. Arab and Moslem terror is nothing new, it’s just gotten more press exposure in the last decade.
Arab nations have tried democracy, monarchy and socialism, but none of these has been able to cure the curse of corruption, tyranny and lack of economic progress. The Wahabi zealots of Saudi Arabia always held out another possibility; Islam. Not just prayer and a virtuous lifestyle, but forcing other Moslems, and non-Moslems, to practice Wahhabism as well. This religious solution only worked if everyone was converted. That would end the oppression of Moslems, as true Moslems do not oppress other Moslems. Wahhabism saw the non-Moslem world as inherently evil, and the Saudi kings always had a hard time introducing new technologies (like radio, TV and modern medicine) into the kingdom because of the opposition from Wahabi zealots who saw these Infidel inventions as un-Islamic and inherently evil.
November 12, 2009: Major Nidal Malik Hasan's murder of 13 people at Fort Hood on November 5th was the act of an Islamic terrorist. The U.S. government is trying to explain it as just the act of a lone madman, but that's what terrorist attacks often are. Moreover, to try and depict Hasan's act as anything but Islamic terrorism ignores Islamic history. One should also note that Islamic terrorists worldwide are hailing the massacre as an act of Islamic terrorism. Who are you going to believe? Try believing history.
The main recruiter for Islamic terrorism has always been conservative Islamic clerics, especially in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Saudi brand of Islam, Wahhabism, has always stressed hatred for infidels (non-Moslems) and forcible conversion of everyone, everywhere, to Islam. Religious hatred is nothing new, but Wahhabism is practiced by many Saudis made rich by half a century of increasing oil wealth. Everyone is urged to join the struggle ("jihad") for making the world Moslem. You can do this as part of a group, or, as Nidal Hasan did, as an individual.
This radicalism comes along every few generations. By the 1980s, many Moslems had become disillusioned with socialism and democracy. All along, Islamic conservatives had been suggesting the “Islamic way.” This meant using Islam as a form of government, as well as a religion. This is how Islam worked back in the beginning. Unfortunately, it didn’t work back then. This failure was explained away (as someone else’s fault, or not doing it right, take your pick). And so began the popularity of radical Islam. When you’re on a mission from God, the ends justify the means. It was a small step from accepting the need for an Islamic form of government, and then getting behind terrorism in the name of God. Besides, Arab armies had not been able to defeat infidel armies for a long, long time. Terrorism and the pure hearts of suicidal Islamic warriors would have to do.
True believers selectively pick out Islamic teachings that favor their goals. Take, for example, the killing of Moslems. This is explained away by believing that any Moslem that does not agree with your radical view, is not a true Moslem and must be killed. Any Moslems who do agree with you, and get killed by your bomb anyway, are simply "involuntary martyrs." Most Moslems do not believe these twisted interpretations of the Koran, but are unwilling to step up and stop the radicals. Nearly all of the 3,500 Moslems in the U.S. military accept that there are evil Moslems out there, and have no qualms about killing them. They see Iraqi and Afghan Moslems doing the same thing.
So where's the problem? It's simply that Islamic radicals have always been a part of Islam. They have been the main reason for the backwardness of Islamic countries. A thousand years ago, it was the Islamic radicals who halted the work of Islamic scientists. This continues, with the current Islamic radicals opposing schools that don't put the main emphasis on religion, or teach girls at all. There are four times more women Nobel laureates from the West than Islamic laureates of any gender. Thus Islamic radicalism is tolerated in the Islamic community, as is Islamic terrorism, at least if it is only directed against kaffirs (non-Moslems).
Dreams of world conquest are also nothing new for Moslems either. Wahhabism demanded it, and pronounced the mission an order from God. Wahhabism also encouraged suicide missions, by assuring those who did a wonderful time in the afterlife. While Wahhabism (subsidized by the Saudi royal family, as a form of extortion payment to radical clerics) controlled the education of most young Saudis, what really got the Islamic revolution going was al Jazeera and the general failure of Arab society during the last half century. This combination of mass media and social failure is how religious hatred and terrorism became hugely popular throughout the Moslem world.
But one of the main inspirations for the current outbreak of Islamic terrorism is the failure of Arab, and to a lesser extent Moslem, society in the last half century. Actually, Islam has been an economic and political disaster for centuries. But for a long time colonialism and the Ottoman empire gave the Islamic world a comfortable excuse for their problems. But the Ottoman empire has been gone since 1918, and colonialism completely disappeared by the 1960s. Despite over a trillion dollars in oil wealth, and proximity to large markets for products, the Arab economies have gone downhill over the last half century. Political progress has been similarly retrograde, with tyrants and dictators being the most common form of government. Same with education, science and just about everything else. No progress. Except terrorism. Arab and Moslem terror is nothing new, it’s just gotten more press exposure in the last decade.
Arab nations have tried democracy, monarchy and socialism, but none of these has been able to cure the curse of corruption, tyranny and lack of economic progress. The Wahabi zealots of Saudi Arabia always held out another possibility; Islam. Not just prayer and a virtuous lifestyle, but forcing other Moslems, and non-Moslems, to practice Wahhabism as well. This religious solution only worked if everyone was converted. That would end the oppression of Moslems, as true Moslems do not oppress other Moslems. Wahhabism saw the non-Moslem world as inherently evil, and the Saudi kings always had a hard time introducing new technologies (like radio, TV and modern medicine) into the kingdom because of the opposition from Wahabi zealots who saw these Infidel inventions as un-Islamic and inherently evil.