<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Leigh Meyers
wrote, in answer to the question, 'if Al Qaeda is a blow against repression, why
are the bombers mostly educated western or Saudi muslims' (I
paraphrase):<BR><BR>>Why was the Cuban revolution led by a Columbia
educated<BR>>lawyer, and a dentist(...in his homeland that's
"doctor").</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>It is a bad
comparison. The Cuban revolution was popular, and its military struggle was
popular, too. By contrast, the London bombings have been condemned by every
Islamic group in Britain, and many outside. Pew Research finds in Islamic
countries that fundamentalism is seen as a big problem and support for AQ a
small minority. In Leeds, Muslims held demonstrations against the
bombers.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The ideology of
fundamentalism (that finds an echo in some Wahhabi and Deobandi commentaries)
excoriates the Islamic states *and masses* as corrupt, dehumanising them
the better to wage war against them.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Some people
might take opposition to the Iraq war as support for Al Qaeda's aims, but that
seems a bit barking to me. Al Qaeda does not want to see democratic self
government in Iraq, but opposes the occupation only insofar as it
is an exemplar of man-made law, which is an affront to God's
law.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>