Easy
Posted on 07/23/2004 12:44:48 PM PDT by quidnunc
Edited on 07/23/2004 1:06:43 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies
Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit
(New York: Penguin, 2004), 160 pp.
"Why do they hate us?" This plaintive question has been asked so many times since 9/11 that it has become almost cliché-like. What possessed educated young Arab men to turn civilian airliners into cruise missiles to be crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on the banks of the Potomac River?
In response, some claim that the current campaign of radical Islamic terror against the West in general and the United States in particular is a desperate response to our policies in the Middle East, especially our support for Israel. Others contend that the Islamists target us more for "who we are" — what we believe — than for what we do.
Some have embraced Sam Huntington’s "clash of civilizations" as an explanation for the rise of terror against the West. Others have responded that this model overstates the case: we are not at war with Islam but only with those who have embraced the instrument of terror.
Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit offer some fascinating reflections on these questions in their brilliant little book, Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies. On the question of "why do they hate us," Messrs. Buruma and Margalit come down firmly on the side of those who believe that "they" hate us for who we are. But they argue that the Islamists’ loathing for the West is not reflective of a clash of civilization. Instead, it is the latest manifestation of an anti-Western hatred that, ironically, originated within the West itself. This hatred is not so much the result of an ideology per se as a "constellation of images" by which the enemies of the West dehumanize it. The authors call this constellation of images "Occidentalism."
Before its current Islamist manifestation, observe Messrs. Buruma and Margalit, the West had come under attack in the name of the Russian Soul, the German Race, State Shinto, and Communism. Nazis, Japanese intellectuals before and during World War II, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge killers, and Mao had in common with today’s suicide bombers a chain of hostility to four images: hatred of the City — the seat of rootless, arrogant, decadent, frivolous cosmopolitanism; scorn for the Bourgeois merchant, who represents the very antithesis of the self-sacrificing hero; contempt for the "Western Mind" and its celebration of Reason and Science; and scorn for the unbeliever who "must be crushed to make way for a world of pure faith." Occidentalism indeed is "a tale of cross-contamination, the spread of bad ideas."
Those very features of the West that its citizens and advocates admire — individual liberty, liberal democracy, free market capitalism, toleration, emancipation of women, diversity, scientific advancement, and dynamism — are precisely the things Occidentalists despise. But Occidentalism is not merely a critique of Western excesses; rather it strips its human targets of their humanity. It is no accident that the Nazi and Islamist versions of Occidentalism both portray Jews in almost exactly the same way — as rootless, money-grubbing, cosmopolitan parasites who poison the authentic spiritual or racial community and therefore deserve to be exterminated.
-snip-Full story . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at ashbrook.org ...
Tell me again how you tell an Islamic radical from just a regular Islamic???
This article is pointless. Almost every terrorist says it's because of our military presence in the Mid East and our support of Israel.
I tend to believe the jackasses doing the hatin', rather than some ivory-towered assclowns.
So when they tell you that Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance you believe them, is that what you're saying?
What kind of tower do you live in, a bubble tower perhaps... WAKE UP!!!!
This is pretty sharp, where is the rest of it?
"So when they tell you that Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance you believe them, is that what you're saying?"
Actually, Bush told me that, and no - I don't believe it.
"What kind of tower do you live in, a bubble tower perhaps... WAKE UP!!!!"
It is you who is in need of awakening. The terrorists hate us for our military presence in the ME and support of Israel, not for our "freedom" and other such nonsense.
If that was the case, why did those asshat 9-11 hijackers enjoy Vegas life for several years?
No - it's all about Israel and the military in the ME. It always has been and always will be. Why you choose to ignore the very words of captured terrorists is beyond me.
/sarcasm
(Just say, 'No'.)
The loathing the Islamic Jihadists have for the "Occidentals" is a classic xenophobic reaction, no different at its heart than Genghis Khan sweeping out of Mongolia. Except the Islamic world was the focus of much of Genghis Khan's wrath.
Check out this link:
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h11mon.htm
The Muslims have been hammered into the dirt before. Took them a while to recover, too.
One doesn't have to sit in an ivory tower to see the influence that Sayed Qtub's existentialist/islamic critique of the West and his importation of existentialist absolute commitment into the Islamic conception of martyrdom had on these folk. It's only post-Qtub Islam that regards killing yourself (proof of your absolute commitment to Jihad, despite the Koranic injunctions against suicide) while trying to kill infidels as martyrdom--before that you had to either be killed for being a Muslim or die in battle against non-Muslims.
the regular dupes...are the ones wearing the belt bombs...
the radicals are the ones watching as they board the bus... and then they push the bomb button's remote control.
no part of islam is identifiable as "the one true sect that loves peace." they love jihad. jihad is NOT peace. they hate peace... because no blood is being shed for the glory of their vampire god... allah.
"allah akbar"... the call to murder... and a supllication for the opportunity to commit it, against all non-belivers.
Who gives a s**t?
The REAL question is, how do we kill them before they kill us (as their koran tells them to)?
Ah yes, the plaintive cry of the islamofascistpaleoconservativeliberal; "It's all the Jews' fault!"
I think you are right that Israel is not to blame but Blzbba also said our presence in the ME. There I think he is right. Islam seem to have its own territorial 'Monroe Doctrine' about 'outsiders'. We want in and they want us out. That seems more the problem than they want our women to wear Burkas here or resent our freedoms here.
"Except the Islamic world was the focus of much of Genghis Khan's wrath.
Check out this link:
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h11mon.htm
The Muslims have been hammered into the dirt before. Took them a while to recover, too."
I'll pass on the link, but you're 100% correct. I'm of the opinion that the Muslim world hasn't really recovered from the complete sacking of its empire by the Khans, whose vengeance (the idiot Muslime started it, btw) was both complete and total. Nice response!
"What does killing Australians in Bali have to do with US policy in Israel? Kidnapping and murdering missionaries in the Philippeans, effacing the historic Orthodox presence in Kosovo, taking over theaters in Moscow, and committing genocide against Christians and animists in the Sudan, likewise have noting to do with Israel."
Aussies in Bali was a response to the Aussie military in Iraq.
True, not every Muslime act of terror is in regards to American policies in the ME and Israel, but the ones directed towards America are.
I mean, your examples above certainly aren't about American freedom and values. Take the Moscow theater episode. What did that have to do with America's liberty and freedom?
I think we're both in agreement that many more of these creatures must be killed, regardless of their 'cause'.
"islamofascistpaleoconservativeliberal; "It's all the Jews' fault!"
"islamofascistpaleoconservativeliberal"?? LMAO!
Actually, you completely misunderstand me. I certainly am NOT in favor of pulling out of Israel and appeasing them, nor do I think the "Jews" are at fault. However, that doesn't change the fact that our support of the Jewish cause is a prime reason given by terrorists for their actions. Just because a reason is illogical to us doesn't disqualify the reality of it being the reason.
Can we at least agree that, regardless of 'cause', as many of these asshat Muslimes need to be killed as possible?
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