In Love With Death (Dershowitz Explicitly Nails Islamofascism As "A Culture of Death")

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 6/4/04 | Alan Dershowitz

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Suicide bombing is advocated by privileged elites

As suicide bombings increase in Iraq, in Saudi Arabia and in Israel, more and more people have come to believe that this tactic is a result of desperation. They see a direct link between oppression, occupation, poverty and humiliation on the one hand, and a willingness to blow oneself up for the cause on the other. It follows from this that the remedy for suicide bombing is to address its root cause - namely, our oppression of the terrorists.

But the underlying premise is false: there is no such link. Suicide bombing is a tactic that is selected by privileged, educated people because it has proven successful. Some of the suicide bombers themselves defy the stereotype of the impoverished victims driven to desperate measures. Remember the 9/11 bombers, several of whom were university students and none of whom was oppressed by the US. They were dispatched by a Saudi millionaire named Osama bin Laden, who has now become the hero of many other upper-class Saudis who are volunteering to become shahids (martyrs).

Majid al-Enezi, a Saudi student training to become a computer technician, recently changed career plans; he crossed over into Iraq, where he died. His brother Abdullah celebrated that decision. "People are calling all the time to congratulate us, crying from happiness and envy."

Why do these overprivileged young people support this culture of death, while impoverished and oppressed Tibetans continue to celebrate life despite their occupation by China?

Historically, why have other oppressed people not resorted to suicide bombings and terrorism? The answer lies in differences among the elite leadership of various causes. The leaders of Islamist radical causes, especially the Wahhabis, incite suicide terrorism, while the leaders of other causes advocate different means. Recall Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, who advocated non-violent means of resistance.

The bombers accept death because they have been incited by imams preaching "Kill the infidels". Sheikh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, the leading Islamic scholar at the elite al-Azhar University in Cairo, has declared that martyrdom operations - ie suicide bombings - are the highest form of jihad.

Occupation makes it more difficult to launch successful terrorist attacks. This is not to argue for occupation; it is to separate the arguments regarding occupation from the claim that it is the fact of occupation that causes suicide bombing. Indeed, were Israel to end its occupation of Gaza and most of the West Bank (as I have long believed it should), it is likely that terrorism would increase. The same might be true in Iraq, if the US were to pick up and run.

The time has come to address the real root cause of suicide bombing: incitement by certain religious and political leaders who are creating a culture of death and exploiting the ambiguous teachings of an important religion. Islamist young people are in love with death, claim some imams; but it is these leaders who are arranging the marriages between the children and the bomb belts.

[American in Israel]

Indeed, were Israel to end its occupation of Gaza and most of the West Bank (as I have long believed it should), it is likely that terrorism would increase.

This author has an obvious cranial disconnect going on here. He advocates occupying Iraq on exactly the reverse of his stated position for the Jews. If terrorism will increase, why would you "un-occupy" the land?

The fact that they have to go in to arrest killers again and again is not occupation, occupation is when you keep your troops there all the time. You have to occupy to have an occupation.

The whole reason the Arabs are screaming "occupation" is because some Jewish cities happen to be near their cities in the same geographical area. According to the Media, somehow the concepts of Apartheid and Genocide are acceptable when it is Moslem's who are doing it.

But if we show two standards and nobody expects Moslem's to act any more moral than Animals because they cannot reach higher standards of morality than animals, is this not the the clearest form of Racism in action? Animals do not kill themselves to kill others, only hiving insects stoop that low. So why does the Media expect no more humanity from Moslem's than Insects have mastered in all their print, and then why is such blatant racism OK if it is the media that does it?

Clearly it is the Arabs who are occupying Gaza, a land they took from the Jews in a war of aggression many years ago when the Moslem's first invaded. If a thief steals your wallet at gunpoint, how long does he have to have in his pocket before it is his and not yours?

According to the principles of common law, something stolen by force never becomes the property of the thief. How come when it is done to the Jews the law changes?

Again according to common law, in a valid war between two peoples to the winner goes the spoils, yet when it is the Jews the law changes? The answer is no, common law is not based on race or creed, but Human morality.

The problem is that the Media and the UN/EU do not really believe or act like the Muslims are truly human!

These common principles of human morality and law apply to the area now called Gaza. It was the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, (or Jew for short). Israel not only recovered that stolen property, they did it by winning a defensive war. If ever there was a section of land the "Jews" owned, Gaza is it!

But the hypocrisy of the Islamic's and the Muslim owned Media has no bounds. (Did you think the Arabs were buying camels with all that oil money...?)

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Is it just me... or: are way, waaaaaaaaayyy too many of the respondents in this thread missing the point in a big, BIG way...? :)

[The_Media_never_lie]

I'm awestruck! Some words of sense out of the mouth of Alan Dershowitz. Simply amazing.

Like a broken clock Dershowitz is right maybe twice a year.

[tkathy]

The underlying problem is never money.

[LS]

True, but he kind of stops short of asking whether Islam itself is inherently death-oriented.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Alan Dershowitz, for all his liberal spewing, did receive a solid Jewish education early in life. Thanks to this he occasionally exhibits a glimmer of good common sense.

As I understand it, Dershowitz' relatives are still Orthodox. Unfortunately, his solid Jewish education means he rebelled not out of ignorance but with knowledge, which makes his liberalism even more damnable. It's not my intention to deny that he can make sense on Israel, but Pat Buchanan can make sense on domestic moral issues. However, I must reject them both.

So when does Dersh start stumping for Kerry??? After all, gotta fight against those forces of "absolute evil" that impeached Clinton!

[gathersnomoss]

Harold and Maude ping

[Zionist Conspirator]

Dershowitz merely hates Islam more than Christianity.

Despite his sense of Jewishness, he obviously doesn't think much of Orthodox Judaism either. He believes G-d is "a work in progress" (!!!) and insists that Jews should find their raison d'etre(sp?) in "social justice" (the fact that most advocates of "social justice" support the Arabs merely illustrates that Dershowitz, like the "palaeos," is a hypocrite who "crosses the street" on the issue of Israel). He also says that while the Bible was "ahead of its time" in its day, it is now outdated (so much for his classic Jewish education), so that Jews continue their ancient mission by attacking its outdated concepts just as their ancestors sought to impose them back when they were "ahead of their time." This seems to be the basic liberal Jewish definition of the Jewish mission. The thing is, in a random, meaningless world (which most liberals of every background believe this is) any sense of "mission" is merely a Nietzschean imposition of one's will on others.

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[sawmill trash]

The time has come to address the real root cause of suicide bombing: incitement by certain religious and political leaders who are creating a culture of death and exploiting the ambiguous teachings of an important religion. Islamist young people are in love with death, claim some imams; but it is these leaders who are arranging the marriages between the children and the bomb belts.


The time has come for these "certain religious and political leaders" to be taught how to be a martyr via the judicious use of a .50 cal. bullet through the front of their heads.
By taking out the most vocal teachers maybe the tide could be stemmed.
As more step forward to take their place , declare jihad on their worthless butts too.

[CanisMajor2002]

Broken-clock-right-twice-a-day bump.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[SJackson]

Wake me up when he comes out in support of the 2nd Amendment.

Hope you're up early

Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming that it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard,
Alan Dershowitz

Another one, from a political elitist who'd grab your guns in a heartbeat, the 2nd ammentment applies only to her.

"Because less than twenty years ago I was the target of a terrorist group...I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms...I carried a concealed weapon. I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me."
Senator Dianne Feinstein

[Blood of Tyrants]

Dershowitz may have been one of the 'toon's primary apologists, but at least he is smart enough to recognize a real threat when they blow up the WTC.

[Taliesan]

He stops short of understanding suicidal homocide in general. It is made possible and encouraged by one simple concept: an afterlife reward for the deed.

Islam is not "in love with death". That's silliness, a turn of phrase crafted by someone who cannot concieve that some religionists actually believe what they say they believe -- that the deity approves of killing unbelievers and will give them in a next life nicer things than they have now, if they do it.

Given that premise, it is not a "love of death" which motivates them; it is a love of whatever they believe they get, i.e. the approval of Allah and 72 virgins. So it is both a rational and religious process starting from an erroneous premise.

That makes it more powerful than any other argument, for those who accept the premise.

You must either kill the would-be "martyr" or kill the premise. Or, like in Israel, build a wall. Nothing else works.

[Tolik]

Is it just me... or: are way, waaaaaaaaayyy too many of the respondents in this thread missing the point in a big, BIG way...? :)

No, it's typical and very human. Conservatives have/had a big problem with Alan Dershowitz active ACLU role. He is a brilliant lawyer and an impressive adversary. For whatever reason he parted the Leftists party line on the subject of terrorism. He remains to be very liberal on many other issues and somehow reconcile inside of his own head (I don't know how it is possible, but he does) his logic about terrorism (where we agree) with the Leftist logic (or absence of it) on other subjects (where we disagree). He is in interesting situation: he is denounced to his dismay by his fellow travelers on the Left and still is not trusted on the Right.

I take allies where I can find them. His book Why Terrorism Works supports his mane arguments very well: a). the root cause of terrorism is its success, and b). terrorism is not a grassroots movement, but a top-down strategy chosen by the leaders because of the argument a). Therefore the strategy in response should be: a). never leave a perception that terrorism can bring benefits even if you have to punish civilians REGARDLESS of the merits of their cause and b). target and eliminate terror leaders. It can bring a temporary increase of the willing canon fodder, but it will subside later.

I recommend this book to all. While we can disagree on many subjects, he states his point with rare eloquence and care.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

I take allies where I can find them.

You are sane, wise and rational.

Don't let them catch you. :)

[Travis McGee]

Glowing crater ping. Sooner or later.