On Jul 6, 2004, at 4:45 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote:
>> So from that point of view the US - or rather the
>> political myopia of Reagan and his handlers - share the lion
>> responsibility for the rise of the so-called "Muslim terrorism."
>
> I would agree with that. The Reaganites built up Islamism
> to tie down the Soviets in Afghanistan. They also promoted
> it to weaken leftist forces in the Arab world. Anwar Sadat,
> as you may recall, freed a lot of the Islamist militants who
> had been imprisoned by Nasser, specifically in order to
> weaken the Nasserites and leftists in Egypt. Unfortunately
> for him, the resulting blowback resulted in his own
> assasination by Islamist militants.
>
>>
>> The anti-western ideology espoused by these folks is directed mainly
>> against Arab modernists rather than the West itself, and the US
>> serves
>> manly as a "punching boy" to make the traditionalist more attractive
>> for
>> Arab audiences.
>
> Also, it's useful to keep in mind, that many of the strongest
> supporters of secular Arab nationalism have been religious
> minorities in the Arab world. Thus, Arab nationalist ideology,
> in the first place, was in large degree the creation of Christian
> intellectuals
> in Syria and Lebanon towards the end of the 19th century.
> In the 20th century, the Ba'athists in Syra, were mainly
> Alawites (a Muslim sect considered to be heretical by
> most other Muslims) and Druse. In Iraq, the Ba'athists
> were mainly Sunni, while a majority of Muslims worldwide,
> are a minority within Iraq.
>
> It should take just a bit of reflection to figure out why secular
> Arab nationalism should appeal to such minorities rather
> than Islamism.
i don't disagree with any of this.
and i think the modern (dare i say, "postmodern"???) character of contemporary radical islamism/islamic fundamentalism is fairly well-established, right? i'm thinking specifically of qutb's reliance on modern, especially post-enlightenment western philosophy.
> Indeed, radical Islamism is often antithetical
> and even hostile to Arab nationalism because it proposed
> to achieve political integration on the basis of a shared
> Muslim religious identity (which can traverse national
> and ethnic lines) as opposed to a shared Arab
> national identity. Islamism has followings in many
> non-Arab, Muslim societies like Turkey, sub-Sahara
> Africa, Indonesia, and even parts of China.
one word: hamas.
j