[extropy-chat] Poverty of Dignity

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Fri Jul 15 17:53:30 UTC 2005



--- Damien Sullivan <phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 15, 2005 at 07:45:52AM -0700, Olga Bourlin wrote:
> > "But virtually all suicide bombers, of late, have been Sunni
> Muslims. There 
> > are a lot of angry people in the world. Angry Mexicans. Angry
> Africans. 
> > Angry Norwegians. But the only ones who seem to feel entitled and
> motivated 
> > to kill themselves and totally innocent people, including other
> Muslims, 
> > over their anger are young Sunni radicals. What is going on?  ...
> Clearly, 
> 
> Except that he's wrong.  Suicide bombing as a modern tactic was
> pioneered by the Tamil Tigers, a secular group of Hindu origins.
> 
> http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/tamiltigers.html
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2098657.stm 

Specifically, the Tamil Tigers are claimed to have pioneered the
explosive belt that is now in use by al Qaeda, the PLO, Hamas, Islamic
Jihad, and other groups. However, this itself is in doubt, as such
belts were in use as far back as the Vietnam War, when the Viet Cong
engaged in suicide attacks in downtown Saigon.

The originators of the technology are irrelevant. The important
questioin is who is the primary user of the technology today. 

> 
> An article on the motivations of suicide bombins: military logic, not
> religion:
> http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/06/30/schuster.column/
> 
>    " What nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in
> common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern
> democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the
> terrorists consider to be their homeland. "
>    -- Robert Pape

Pape's opinions are under serious attack because he seems to dismiss
the religious motives of the attackers as irrelevant, yet at the same
time claims that the preception of the attackers that their homeland is
being 'invaded' is based on the religion of the invaders, i.e.
christian, atheist, etc... He is trying to have his cake and eat it
too.

If religion were irrelevant, then there shouldn't be such a striking
monoculture of religious leanings or heritage of suicide bombers.
Whether one is ferverently religious or not is irrelevant to whether
one considers oneself muslim or of other religious extraction.

What has been going on is the mosques and madrassas of the muslim world
have been taken over by radical wahhabists promoting a theology of hate
and death to impressionable muslims. The fact is that at least two of
the four named bombers in Britain were British muslims who had recently
spent time in Pakistan undergoing 'religious' study, and at least three
of the four became associated through soccer matches. It isn't
impossible to imagine that one can infect another with religous memes
outside a madrassa, and it appears they all travelled significant
distances to attend a particular mosque that was known for advocating
radical teachings, ignoring mosques that were closer to home but were
more tame and mainstream.

As for the socioeconomic commentary, it is clear that only well-off
families can afford to send their kids to school, and well off muslim
families that care about their kids are also more likely to send their
kids to madrassas as well. It is a selection effect, not a determinant.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! Mail for Mobile 
Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. 
http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail 



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list