And here's another thing - Islam has been around hundreds of years, and except for short periods in the 12th and 18th centuries, suicide attacks were never part of their culture. - ramboIslam has been around for hundreds of years, and although until recently they didn't have planes they could use to fly into buildings full of infidels, jihad has always been part of their culture (as you put it). As has been suicidal attacks: the Janissaries used to say that "the body of a Janissary is only a stepping stone for his brothers into the breach". (Read Ernle Bradford's "The Great Siege" and Roger Crowley's "Empires of The Sea" for a crash course on this topic - I found them both excellent.) Interesting too is how Muslims treated any captives - unbelievers, that is. Slavery, torture and death were the order of the day should anyone be unfortunate enough to be captured by the "Barbary corsairs" - who gave the Americans such bother at one point. I provided a quote about that earlier. Read it again if you require an insight into the Muslims' motives in their dealings with nonbelievers. Be sure to consider this second quote alongside the first:
"The old people were taken out, robbed of their clothes and cut open whilst still alive. All this was done out of spite and when we asked the corsairs why they treated these people with such cruelty they replied that among them such cruelty was deemed a virtue." - Jerome Maurand, watching corsairs raiding Lipari. (Quoted in "The Barbary Corsairs" by Jacques Heers, Greenhill Books, p. 19.)
How indeed can one defeat Islamic terrorism, if one does not understand what it is?
btw rambo you seem to be trying to draw up an argument that asserts that terrorism is a uniquely political activity, and that Islam is not. (Therefore one has nothing to do with the other.) I put it to you that this is a reflection of the Western view of religion, which is based on modern Christianity [...] But you're just assuming that this applies to Islam as well. What if you are wrong? What if Islam is not merely spiritual, but has a political agenda "built in" to its teachings? And how can you find out if you are right or wrong, without even discussing Islam to find out? - gb, post 71.
I suggested that Islam has a political aspect to it, and that any grievances one might have could be bound up with one's Islamic beliefs. It could also be the case that any proposed resolution of those grievances (however violent they may be) are in accordance with Islamic beliefs too.
As I said earlier though: how can one even begin to address such questions without discussing Islamic beliefs? After all, there is an Islamic terrorist threat in this country (see those links to MI5) and if we're going to combat it, then at the very least, we need to know what we're talking about. - gb, post 82




