Posted on 12/24/2001 6:01:23 AM PST by rockprof
December 24, 2001 -- JOHN Walker Lindh's case may seem eccentric and unique. How many 20-year-olds from Marin County, Calif., especially ones named after a Beatle and children of a convert to Buddhism, end up in a dank cellar in Afghanistan fighting with the most fanatical of al Qaeda terrorists?
Obviously, not many. But Walker illustrates three important and troublesome trends.
* One concerns the powerful lure of militant Islam for alienated Westerners. What Walker, also known as Abdul Hamid, told his Islamic teacher in Pakistan - "In the U.S. I feel alone. Here I feel comfortable and at home" - is a sentiment others share.
David Hicks, for example, is a 26-year old Australian whom a friend described as someone who "didn't like the way things were going," so he also turned to militant Islam.
Now called Mohammed Dawood, he has fought since 1999 for no less than three extremist groups - the Kosovo Liberation Army against Serbia, Lashkar-e-Taiba against India, and al Qaeda against the world. Like Walker, Hicks was apprehended in Afghanistan.
Isanu Dyson, a 24-year-old resident of Portland, Maine and recent follower of militant Islam, never got to Afghanistan because of family obligations, but he sure wishes he had, telling The Post he wants to get "out of the country, renounce my citizenship, end up in Afghanistan, pick up a gun and fight alongside everyone else against the enemy - American soldiers."
These young men are sending a message: Green (militant Islam) has replaced brown (Nazism) or red (communism) as the ideology of choice for Westerners who loathe their own societies. They revel in militant Islam's opposite outlook on everything from eating utensils to female modesty to the role of religion in the state.
Most of all, however, they cherish militant Islam's deep hatred of the West. They cheered the Sept. 11 attack (Walker: "Yes, I supported it") and dream to see the forces of Islam defeating their home countries.
* Second, the alienation of these wild-eyed converts reflects sentiments found among militant Islamic elements - converts and immigrants alike - in Western Muslim populations. Specifically, survey research found that as many as 10 percent of the Muslims in Holland sympathized with the Sept. 11 assault.
More broadly, militants vociferously oppose the war on terrorism. Reuters reported in September that many Muslims in the United States "say they would send financial help to any Arab nation attacked by U.S. forces, especially if civilians come under fire."
It quoted Mohammed Batal, an 18-year-old Syrian immigrant living in Brooklyn, that if American forces "attack my Muslim brothers, I will help my brothers. First, I'm a Muslim, then a Syrian and then an American."
In Great Britain, about 200 Muslims protested in October at the central London mosque in Regents Park, chanting slogans ("Tony Blair, burn in hell"), torching the U.S. flag, and burning pictures of U.S. and British leaders.
In London, militant Islamic organizations openly solicited young Muslim men to fight for the Taliban, with some success: some 200 British nationals of Middle Eastern and South Asian origins (as well as 80 French nationals) joined Walker and Hicks in Afghanistan.
* Third, even non-militant Muslims living in the West reject the war on terror. Whereas some 90 percent of Americans consistently support their president's handling of the hostilities, nearly the same proportion of Muslims dissent.
An unscientific poll on a U.S. Islamic Web site in October registered 74 percent opposition to the airstrikes - roughly the same as in Kuwait, where a November survey found 82 percent opposed the war effort in Afghanistan.
After the Taliban regime was tottering, a more scientific poll conducted by Zogby International, found the percentage of U.S. Muslims opposed to the war had dropped to 43 percent - still four times higher than the national average. A Market & Opinion Research International survey found 64 percent of British Muslims in late November opposing the war effort in Afghanistan.
That Western Muslims view the war on terrorism like their coreligionists abroad indicates how politically estranged they are from their non-Muslim neighbors.
All three of these trends are worrisome, to put it mildly. But the delicacy of the issues involved causes Western leaders and institutions to shy away and pretend all is well.
This is a mistake, for the longer this estrangement festers, the more difficult it will eventually be to address.
Daniel Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum.
This is truly amazing to me (although I have to say I'm not surprised). I'm a Christian yet I would never support Christians in other countries engaging in terrorist acts simply because I am a Christian first and an American second (even though that's true). I would view the terrorist acts as contrary to my faith and denounce them. What these muslims are saying is that Islam is a religion which not only tolerates but even seems to enourage terrorism. Of course, that doesn't surprise any of us, does it.
However, green is the right color for that ideology of choice. It's militant environmentalism that has and may be becoming more the "ideology of choice...."
maybe we should start profiling Green members?
To: aculeus
Already posted here, but only by a few minutes.
2 posted on 12/24/01 10:18 AM Eastern by Celtjew Libertarian
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To: aculeus
These are the kinds of things that people need to remember every time some @sshole like Bill Clinton makes a public statement about how poverty and ignorance are the "root causes" of terrorism.
The stories recounted here support the claim of Robert Bork, who once said that the most underappreciated human emotion is boredom. In a decadent, affluent society, many people are so bored that they will join or even create stupid, idiotic causes just so they can feel that their lives have some meaning.
3 posted on 12/24/01 10:21 AM Eastern by Alberta's Child
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A psychological profile of converts to Islam would appear to feature natural born losers. An early tell-tale would be of those individuals who, as children, when playing the "short form" of Monopoley, i.e., where the properties are dealt out instead of played for, opt to quit because they weren't dealt Boardwalk and Park Place.
'nuff said.
If you describe yourself in this way, you are not an American at all. This clown should be forbidden to utter the word American. He is a Syrian Muslim who should go back to live, and die, with his Muslim brothers.
We have plenty of malcontents in America. The whole teenage phenomenon could play into this. It hasn't yet, but it could in the future. Teens who used to play around with Zen or with Heavy Metal might start playing around with Islam instead. Then there are all those Black Muslims. Such groups can suddenly mutate and become dangerous. There's plenty of resentment among blacks, which is constantly being fanned into violence by the media and by Democrat politicians.
Last, there are the naturalized Arabs, who number in the millions, and many of whom have large families. It would be better to head off these problems early, before they get out of control.
Why is this guy still running his mouth in Brooklyn? How come he hasn't been unceremoniously shipped back to the place he really loves, fascist Syria? He will then have plenty of opportunity to "help" his Muslim brothers when we take out his little turd country.
I doubt it, if only because most movements that have appealed to American malcontents are those that give them an increased opportunity to get laid (in this life). Certainly, it's even more doubtful it will be popular among female malcontents.
It also helps that it's a macho-based movement and the U.S. has already kicked its butt. I could be wrong, but radical Islam does not fit the previous model of Americal malcontent rebel movements.
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