Muslims: Plenty of Reasons for Hating America
I was watching ‘Morning Joe’ on msnbc the other day and the team and guests were discussing Abdulmutallab, the underpants bomber. What a crock of shit I heard from them.
“Oh, woe is us, what can we do when a rich kid from Kenya (they got that wrong, didn’t they?), with no reason to be angry, not even from a sordid family background or anything like that, decides to become a terrorist?”
No Reason? Come on you pompous asses, recognize the truth: This kid had plenty of reasons, the Imam Anwar Al Awlaki was happy to explain them to him, and the Imam’s narrative resonated with Abdulmutallab and resonates with countless other young Islamic men.
The Imams’ story: The USA is at war with Islam. The US bombs Islamic civilians the world over. The US has suppressed Islamic rights. They bully the governments of Islamic countries. The US is materialistic, evil, degenerate, and heretic, and, most of all, the US sides with Israel over the Palestinians no matter what outrageous thing Israel has done.
This is the extremist Islamic view and while there will always be extremists, as long as there is a ring of truth to the extremist rhetoric there will be an endless supply of idealistic young men who will believe it and will follow them, belting bombs to their waists. No military action, no amount of airport security, no number of predator drones, and no amount of Republican bellicosity, can, by itself, solve this problem, or even make a dent.
Msnbc needs to take a step back and look at the big picture.
There is a problem and it is a perception within the Islamic world that the USA is against them. The USA has to face this head on. A national dialog needs to be started about how our actions should back our words about “Not at war with Muslims”.
First and foremost we need to address the Palestinian grievances. It is time to give Israel an ultimatum about it’s intransigence on settlements and East Jerusalem. Both need to be stopped and in fact unwound. The Palestinians need and deserve their own sovereign state with no Israeli ruled and militarily protected Jewish enclaves so the settlements should not only be stopped but abandoned. The Palestinians deserve and should have East Jerusalem as their capital. The property rights of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, based on Palestinian claims not Jewish court decisions, should be protected and restored. Jerusalem should be an internationally ruled city, not an Israeli fiefdom.
I am not saying that Israel should recognize the 60 year old Palestinian property claims for land and homes they left or were driven out of in Israel, and I am certainly not advocating that Israel change its tough military policy of reprisal against Palestinian rocket or other terrorist attacks. I am just saying, they must provide a just and equitable concession to the most basic requirements of the Palestinians.
Until the US supports that sort of even minded position on the Palestinian issue, and otherwise reassesses its overall approach to Islamic countries, the extremist imams will continue to find receptive ears among young Muslim men.
Msnbc, as long as they are commentating in addition to reporting, can get their heads out of their asses and start saying what needs to be said, the US policy must change, and until it does there will be a reason why kids turn to terrorism.
Fred Roswold
“Oh, woe is us, what can we do when a rich kid from Kenya (they got that wrong, didn’t they?), with no reason to be angry, not even from a sordid family background or anything like that, decides to become a terrorist?”
No Reason? Come on you pompous asses, recognize the truth: This kid had plenty of reasons, the Imam Anwar Al Awlaki was happy to explain them to him, and the Imam’s narrative resonated with Abdulmutallab and resonates with countless other young Islamic men.
The Imams’ story: The USA is at war with Islam. The US bombs Islamic civilians the world over. The US has suppressed Islamic rights. They bully the governments of Islamic countries. The US is materialistic, evil, degenerate, and heretic, and, most of all, the US sides with Israel over the Palestinians no matter what outrageous thing Israel has done.
This is the extremist Islamic view and while there will always be extremists, as long as there is a ring of truth to the extremist rhetoric there will be an endless supply of idealistic young men who will believe it and will follow them, belting bombs to their waists. No military action, no amount of airport security, no number of predator drones, and no amount of Republican bellicosity, can, by itself, solve this problem, or even make a dent.
Msnbc needs to take a step back and look at the big picture.
There is a problem and it is a perception within the Islamic world that the USA is against them. The USA has to face this head on. A national dialog needs to be started about how our actions should back our words about “Not at war with Muslims”.
First and foremost we need to address the Palestinian grievances. It is time to give Israel an ultimatum about it’s intransigence on settlements and East Jerusalem. Both need to be stopped and in fact unwound. The Palestinians need and deserve their own sovereign state with no Israeli ruled and militarily protected Jewish enclaves so the settlements should not only be stopped but abandoned. The Palestinians deserve and should have East Jerusalem as their capital. The property rights of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, based on Palestinian claims not Jewish court decisions, should be protected and restored. Jerusalem should be an internationally ruled city, not an Israeli fiefdom.
I am not saying that Israel should recognize the 60 year old Palestinian property claims for land and homes they left or were driven out of in Israel, and I am certainly not advocating that Israel change its tough military policy of reprisal against Palestinian rocket or other terrorist attacks. I am just saying, they must provide a just and equitable concession to the most basic requirements of the Palestinians.
Until the US supports that sort of even minded position on the Palestinian issue, and otherwise reassesses its overall approach to Islamic countries, the extremist imams will continue to find receptive ears among young Muslim men.
Msnbc, as long as they are commentating in addition to reporting, can get their heads out of their asses and start saying what needs to be said, the US policy must change, and until it does there will be a reason why kids turn to terrorism.
Fred Roswold
posted by wingssail at 9:40 PM
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