Saving the 'American Taliban' [[I cannot believe this stuff]]

page A19 of the Boston Globe ^ | 12/19/2001 | Steven Hassan: director of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center

[rface]

WHAT COULD have driven an educated young American from a loving and prosperous family to embrace the Taliban cause?

His parents have said that he was brainwashed. I have not met John Walker Lindh, who was recently captured in Afghanistan, but I believe his parents are probably right. In fact, I had a similar experience as a student at Queens College in New York City when I was 19 - Lindh's age. I never participated in actual combat, but I was engaged in a holy war on the streets of New York.

[Anamensis]

Amazing, eh? You'd think birth control would have affected the process, but it seems to have sped it up.

[Deb]

Um...did poor widdle Johnny also suffer from ADD, Dyslexia, hyper-tension and all the other Marin county faux diseases? He came from a broken home (sniff) and went to a navel-gazing, butterfly school before leaving the US of A on his date with brainwashing destiny.

Sounds more like another typical spoiled brat product of the Dr. Spock syndrome for human wreckage than a tragic victim of "brainwashing".

Here's a kid who never heard the word "No" or had to follow a rule in his life and he travels around the world to end up part of the most repressive, intolerent, dictatorial community in the world. Sounds like a boy begging to be given clear boundries and an occasional ass whoopin', to me.

The brains that should have been washed belong to his parents.

The people of United States will take it from here, Mr. Lindh.

[MHGinTN]

The central authority detests ... oh, never mind. Natural selection is completely askew when the central authority enters the picture to tilt the balance in favor of the sheep over the wolves, just to grow voters for socialist programs.

[Jeff Head]

I did. Sent it as a letter to the editor to the Globe, addressed to Steven Hassan. Hope they print it.

[kcvl]

When Frank Lindh left his family in 1997, it was to move in with a male companion. Yep. ... The man with whom Lindh lived has since been described as "a family friend," but other family friends say the men lived as a gay couple.

[angkor]

It's going to turn out that half the muslim world is one big cult.

I chose the word "corporately" very carefully, meaning that terrorism, murder, and other crimes are actually embraced as tenants of the "religion" (aka "cult"). Kali worshippers, Jim Jones, Aum Shnrikyo, Rajneesh Foundation International, etc. There are other factors that make up a "cult," but wanton criminality as a purported "act of faith" would certainly be a definining feature.

There's some interesting and comprehensive information about Islamism and other cults at the Apologetics Index.

[rdb3]

Question: WHAT COULD have driven an educated young American from a loving and prosperous family to embrace the Taliban cause?

Answer: Cultural-relativism, a Marxist upbringing, and having been taught not to appreciate the United States of America.

Next question.

[jammer]

Okay, I think all of us agree with you that brainwashing is a real phenomenon--after all the US voting public elected Bill Clinton.

The question I have is, "So what?" That question has needed to be asked much more often for the last 50 years of all the sob stories in the media. Execution just might do some brainwashing of its own for anyone else in the future considering this course.

[Anamensis]

Apologetics is an interesting website, although I think this deliberate distinction between Islam and Islamism is a bit fabricated. It's more a continuum than a divide, and despite the reassuring comments like:

Islam places great emphasis on virtue, charity, and living according to God's will; it is not at all incompatible with political democracy or religious pluralism.

The fact is, Islam is VERY incompatible with capitalism due to the hatred of usury that results in a very negative attitude toward Jews -- which intensitiy waxes and wans over the years, depending on how thoroughly their Jewish populations are subdued -- and is at least indirectly responsible for their hatred of America and its success.

[patriot31u]

I have no doubt that John Walker was brainwashed! I also dont give a rats a$$. Fact is a real American is dead. CIA agent Johnny Spann! Just because this idiot believes this crap and was brainwashed doesn't change anything. I believe that the hijackers of Sep 11th were brainwashed, does this make their crime any less evil. Should we now forgive them. NOOOO!!! I could care less about this reporters experiences. I dont see the big deal. If someone was to say to me the things this reporter claims were said to him, I would laugh in their faces. He was brainwashed because he allowed himself to be brainwashed. Same as Walker! Doesn't change the fact that he fought with the enemy against his country. He should take a dirt nap!

[jammer]

I never asserted that everyone says "So what?" I asserted that everyone SHOULD say "So what?"