-- Chirs: It's weird, isn't it?
Iran in 2006: Functioning industrialized state. Relatively developed. Economy based on exporting oil. IRANIAN ISLAMISTS = BAD!
Chechnya in 1999: A freakin' wreck ruled by feuding bloodthirsty clans. Ethnic cleansing has kicked out all non-Chechens. Frequent attacks on border regions. Economy based on hostage-taking, slavery and remittances from Al-Qaeda. How Romantic! CHECHEN ISLAMISTS = GOOD!
[WS:] I think it is indicative of a certain juvenile mindset or perhaps social status seeking, which ostensibly rejects the everyday conventions and espouses the weird, the shocking and the exotic. An adolescent wearing a weird garb "adorned" with Nazi insignia has no idea what Nazism is really about. He does not even comprehend the fundamental contradiction between his convention breaking and Nazism - similar convention breaking behavior would probably earned him a place in a concentration camp under a true Nazi regime. The same is true about Islamism, Communism, radicalism etc. In his mind, everything that is shocking for his parents and teachers blurs into one undifferentiated category of "Cool Stuff:" weird garb, loud music, Nazism, Islamism, Communism, Third World, drugs, sex, anything that is weird and unconventional.
Such behavior is merely a sign of juvenile contumacy, and a normal part of growing up, not indicative of any reasoned political or ideological sympathies. The problem is that some people do not grow up until much later in their biological lives.
Wojtek