generalspeaking

Encouraging, Rewarding Terror

We appear to be collectively conflicted, hardly knowing how to react toward those elements that threaten our very existence. We're entirely too civilized to know how to deal adequately with the threats we face. And so we respond in the most absurd of fashions, somehow seeming to cling to the quaint notion that this nightmare will dissipate if we behave nicely, or just don't notice it too greatly, or just apply ourselves to half-measures. That those whose vitriolic hatred against us will be mitigated by our kindness, our concern for their state of being.

The new American administration vowed that it would restore itself to its proper place of respect as a reliable, responsible world power. That it would eschew its reputation as a world-class bully. That it would hold out a hand of friendship and accommodation to those other countries of the world and elements within it that held it in low esteem. And so the new president, Barack Obama, offered a hand of friendship and understanding to the world of Islam, declaring America to be its friend.

And so indeed, it should be. And so indeed should the world of Islam view the United States and in fact, the democratic and non-Muslim countries of the world as open and amenable, as partners on this globe we inhabit. Pity that such overtures seldom have the advantage of solving problems that continually arise out of the human condition. Since that very human condition has been patterned upon human beings from primeval times; to survive, one must prevail.

And to prevail means that one must have superior means to one's challengers - for territory and for livelihood; for croplands and valuable minerals and petrofuels, and prestige. The human psyche has been ingrained with the vision of a tribal mentality. It has, however, evolved that people in Europe, in the Americas, have managed to accept an ameliorative enlightenment that somehow seemed to bypass the near and the far East.

That having been said, the divisions between the West and the East, while seeming on occasion to have been broached with some success, have never been totally breached. And it is to our misfortune that we remain at odds with one another. All the more so when religion has been the tipping point; religion which in its various manifestations attempts to encourage dialogue and understanding and peace between peoples of the world, while traditionally it has done otherwise.

In the U.S.-led 'war on terror', President Obama declared his differences with his country's previous administrations by pledging to empty and close down Guantanamo prison. In doing so, releasing former prisoners to their home countries. Where, it has become apparent, some of those former prisoners have jubilantly re-dedicated themselves to jihad, as was the case with leaders behind the plot to blow the Northwest Airlines jet over Detroit to oblivion.

Two of those former prisoners were repatriated to Saudi Arabia where they were processed through the country's rehabilitation program. Once through with their "art therapy rehabilitation program", they were free to pursue their goals, and this they most certainly did. But by no means is this unusual, since it is fairly well recognized that other former detainees, since released, have sturdily returned to their former jihadi occupations, more determined than ever to exact revenge on behalf of Islam.

Israel too has dedicated itself to attempting to extricate itself from the quagmire of unending attacks upon its existence. It deals with a partner-for-peace, the Palestinian Authority. This same Palestinian Authority that has admitted it has a neat little habit of rewarding both Hamas and Fatah terrorists with "salaries". The more serious the attacks they are able to inflict upon Israel, the more generous the salaries.

The truly fascinating thing about this is that these expansive funds emanate from European Union countries and the United States as well, included in foreign aid packages. Funds earmarked for training the PA's emerging army under the guidance of U.S. forces are somehow side-tracked. Despite the primary aid condition from the U.S. being that the PA recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous agreements, inclusive of halting anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist incitement.

Those Palestinians who have committed terror acts against Israel and are imprisoned by Israel are given handsome stipends for their families. Britain is forwarding funds to the PA with the understanding that it will be used to fight 'extremism'. Britain might perhaps want to demonstrate to the PA how ably they themselves do that within Britain, as an instructive example to be followed. But Britain is committed to encouraging the PA to use that funding for a 'drive against extremism' targeting young Palestinians.

It doesn't quite seem that Arab or Muslim countries from among whom new recruits and funding for terror emanates are themselves too terribly interested in battling global jihad. They are concerned with ensuring that it does not gain too hefty a foothold on their own territory, thus challenging them at home. But Muslim countries and their government have not openly challenged violent jihad and expressed their denial of it, for it seems to have its purposes, if outwardly directed.

One singularly heroic figure stands out in recent events as condemnatory of Islamic jihad. Oh, there certainly are courageous Arab and Muslim writers, academics, journalists of decidedly anti-jihad and pro-Western sentiment who write convincingly of their disgust with violent jihad. But it is a father who, understanding that his beloved son had succumbed to jihadist overtures and embraced violent jihad who represents true bravery.

A parent who, anguished over the reality that his child had been radicalized - and that, in a country of the West, that very same Britain unable to develop a working system to extirpate extremism at home, but who sends funding abroad to do just that - urgently made contact with intelligence agencies in Nigeria to warn of his son's impending tryst with violence. Lamentably, absurdly, the very agents who were warned failed in their professional duty.

Yet Alhaji Umaru Mutallab was sufficiently committed to civil order and peace among peoples and religions that he messaged the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, but to no avail. His action, however, should be elevated in the popular imagination as the exemplary standard to which all responsible people of good will should aspire.

Labels: Political Realities, Terrorism, Traditions, World Crises

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, January 07, 2010