[lbo-talk] This is WAR, sons!

Jon Johanning jjohanning at igc.org
Tue Jul 6 11:41:00 PDT 2004


On Jul 6, 2004, at 9:32 AM, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:


> i was wondering how exactly the politically correct response differs
> from this. certainly the dad's politically correct straw men will say
> that the US has brought this on itself in important ways, that
> political-economic factors weigh heavily, that war may not be the
> appropriate response, etc. but who among us actually says that there
> are no muslim terrorists, that a particular understanding of islam is
> not a key component of their ideology, or that muslim terrorists are
> not these days aiming to terrorize americans and their allies
> specifically?

I habitually begin my posts by saying that I am not an expert in the field in question -- because I am not an expert in very many fields. In this case, I have to emphasize that I am *really* not an expert either in Islam or the history of terrorism. However, my layperson's opinion is that it is not a very good idea to refer to "Muslim terrorists," because I don't think the Islamic component of their actions is terribly important, and because the great majority of Muslims around the world would obviously never think of flying a plane into a building or blowing themselves up on a bus, any more than the average Catholic would ever consider shooting a doctor, no matter what they though about the morality of abortion.

It certainly seems to be true that, at the moment, the terrorists most Americans have uppermost in their minds are primarily Muslims, but it was not so long ago that they were shaking in their boots from the threat of the "militias" drilling in the woods of Michigan -- plain old American folks like them. Fashions in terror apparently come and go. Again, I know little about Islam, but I don't think it provides much of an explanation of the behavior of the people Americans now consider the prime terrorists, though of course Islamic ideas and terminology are very important to the latter. As a parallel, many (probably most) of the "militias" which were considered a threat a while back were Christians, and many of them certainly spouted a lot of Christian language. But that didn't mean that a study of Christian theology would have shed much light on the reasons for their behavior as militias.

If we are going to use the term "Muslim terrorists" as a short-hand name for this particular group of people, we have to be very careful that we understand that it is only short-hand. I can't think right off the top of my head of a handy name which is less misleading, but perhaps someone else can.

Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, 'You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.' -- Sir Arnold Bax



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