re: #90 CuriousLurker

Terrorism as we know it today perpetrated by radical Islamists is not something that has always existed. This offensive has increased dramatically thanks in large part to Islamist like Qutb in Egypt and Azzam in Afghanistan, and with the financial assistance of Saudi Arabia. We are constantly calling for the Muslim world to address this cancer within precisely because it is so effective.

Allow me to point out that their “struggle” is seen by the Islamists in almost exactly the same way the counter-Jihadists see theirs—as a righteous, noble defense against encroaching foreign culture & value systems that threaten to destroy their way of life. This counter-jihad is literally jihad in-kind mirror movement.

Anyone who thinks that Westerners (or Western culture) will indefinitely remain immune to a well-orchestrated and well-funded pan-Western campaign of the sort that that was worked so well for the jihadists is sticking their head in the sand, IMO. You, as a behaviorist, should be more aware of this than most.

Our government is concerned about right-wing terrorism for good reason. All cultures may not be equal, but all cultures are made up of human beings who are susceptible to persuasion under the right circumstances. To think that this is “only a trigger” for those who are already “insane” and that the rest of us are somehow immune & above it all is pure folly.

History has proven this. THIS BLOG has proven this. How many people here—people I consider to be decent & rational—have I seen admit to thinking pretty awful things in the aftermath of 9/11? Why did Charles back away from the far-right? Because it is a clear & present danger.

I agree with you 100%.

But (big but) you are presenting only a part of the story. Radical Islamism would not have taken hold in the way it did if the regimes in the Middle East were not corrupt and failed. The regimes had a lot to do with the creation of the Islamists both before and after the region ‘turned to religion’.

Certainly Daoud Qutb preceded the outward Saudi Wahhabi efforts. In fact, they funded the MB precisely because they were successful. They knew and understood they could cultivate an entire society that was so dysfunctional they could pose no threat or danger to the regions regimes (recall too, the Arab League exists only to maintain the status quo There has not been a single AL economic, educational or political effort that has benefited the ummah in any way, shape or form).

Obviously, ideologues preach t a choir, but ultimately, those whose go to the extreme are very few in number. Out of the millions in the Middle East, only a few hundred (if that) have become suicide bombers- and they were usually taken away from their families and manipulated. There is a reason there have been so many developmentally disabled children employed as suicide bombers. Why so few, overall? Because people inherently understand the nature of evil and there is nothing any of these imams can do to change that. They cannot take decent people (no matter how hard they try and turn them into evil people. As you are aware, I know this first hand).

A decent, healthy person will not allow himself to become evil.

Period.