[Steve_Seattle]

"Not a long shot - might be the only way..."

What got me thinking this way was the suicide bombers in Iraq who are now blowing up mosques and killing innocent Muslims. When Muslims are blowing up mosques and killing Muslims supposedly in defense of Islam, something very strange is going on psychologically. It suggests a split in the psyche; it suggests a psychosis deeper than Islam in which part of the psyche has in fact split off from Islam and is battling the part that is trying to hang on to Islam. These acts of suicidal violence make more sense as failures of psychic integration than as coherent expressions of Islam, even of militant Islam. (Now donning flame retardant suit.)

[Chaguito]

Interesting psychological analysis, but the fact remains that the general population of Muslims knows where the psychotics are being nurtured and they don't do anything substantial about it.

The analysis needs to center on that truth, not simply on the bombers.

[GOPJ]

Muslim myth structures are different from ours. It's why a Muslim father can kill a girl child who was raped. It's why Muslim cultures produce so many willing to kill themselves. ( And yes, I know Buddhist monks in Viet Nam killed themselves as protest, but they were a very disciplined subset of the culture, not the average "man on the street".)

In support of what you're saying, the closer Muslims get to necessary reformation, the stronger the conflict. Your analysis is optimistic. I'm not sure they're anywhere near the point where avoidance clicks in...

When Muslims are blowing up mosques and killing Muslims supposedly in defense of Islam, something very strange is going on psychologically. It suggests a split in the psyche; it suggests a psychosis deeper than Islam in which part of the psyche has in fact split off from Islam and is battling the part that is trying to hang on to Islam. These acts of suicidal violence make more sense as failures of psychic integration than as coherent expressions of Islam, even of militant Islam.