Replies

It's symbolic anyway. They'll just keep right on with or without the rock. Won't make any difference at all.

I don't pretend to know the inner mind of the average Islamist, so I can't fully evaluate the accuracy of that statement. There is a competing school of thought that symbolism is extremely important, which is supported by the hajj and the fact that the 5-times-a-day prayer sessions involve facing Mecca.

What I do know after studying wars that involve fanatics is that if you can sufficiently shock them (either through killing a sufficient number in a sufficiently-horrific method or through destroying everything they think is sacred spectacularily), they will lose the fanaticism. Why did Japan fold after 2 nukes, while it took Allies crawling over virtually every square inch of Germany to get the Nazis to quit?

Consider this: Alqaida struck the WTC and the Pentagon and attempted some other targets because they believed that the West considered these to be important symbols. Muslims don't hold much stock in external symbols, but they thought we did. They were highly dissappointed when the West didn't collapse as the symbols did. Turns out we don't have sacred icons any more than they do. They and we don't dabble in idol worship.

What do you think?