Le Monde diplomatique: "Morocco: slums breed jihad"

One of the two British Muslims who went on that suicide bombing mission in Israel was a private school boy from an affluent family, unless I'm mistaken.

Elephant:

I believe both of the British born jihadists were from comfortable backgrounds as were many, if not all, of the purps of 9/11 and Osama himself. They are not, as the deluded poster mathandhumanity would have it, acting out of despiration and responding to human misery and privation. Rather, they luxuriate in it, and find it "purifying".

It doesnt take filthy poor people to make jihadists. Devout Muslims, willing to make a partial if orthodox reading of The Koran, suffice. They cannot be proven wrong by other Muslims.

The Koran breeds jihad, no matter the location.

Did every KKK member belong to the proletariat?

Two questions for Alain Gresh, the silly redacteur-en-chef of Le Monde diplomatique, and author of the entirely predictable book of apologetics, "L'Islam, la Republique, et le monde" (Gresh, born in Cairo to a Coptic father and a Jewish mother, believes that this background entitles him to be taken as an expert without having studied Islam at all. He is of a piece with Dominique de Villepin, who because he was born in Morocco, considers himself to have special insight into that world or with Edward Said, an Arab who was not a Muslim, who did not grow up in the Islamic world but in the U.S. from the age of 14, and who apparently thought that his mere "arabness" would somehow -- osmosis, anyone? -- give him special insight in to what Islam is all about -- and a good many people seemed to find that plausible, and to forgive such things as his dreamy belief that Muslims conquered Byzantium before conquering Spain, when it was the other way round, and by 700 years.

Gresh seems to believe that only sinister "anti-Arab racists," would raise questions about Islam, and attempt to frighten one and all about this entirley inoffensive "religion" (yes, for Gresh it is definitely a religion, not a belief-system). So what we have here, in the reactions of alarmed Infidels, from southern Thailand, to the streets of Holland, to the school in Beslan, to the outskirts of Washington, is simply "anti-Arab racism" in the clever disguise of "Islamophobia."

Question #1 has several parts, and you, Monsieur Alain Gresh, redacteur-en-chef of Le Monde diplomatique, must answer all of them -- but take your time. Here goes:

If poverty in Morocco gives rise to the Jihad, what caused Mike Hawash, Intel engineer completely integrated -- from the outside -- in American life, and earning $360,000 a year, to embrace the Jihad, make out his will, and set out to fight his fellow Americans in Afghanistan? And if "poverty" causes the Jihad, how is it that the richest country per capita in the world for many years (it has since fallen), Saudi Arabia, has produced so many Jihadis who show up in Bosnia, and Afghanistan, and New York, and in Washington, and in Iraq, and everywhere? And if "poverty" in Morocco explains the growth in Jihadist sentiment, and not something else (such as a renewed attention to the world-view that Islam presents, in offering the Infidel as the Source of All Evil and All-Purpose Scapegoat) could you explain why Osama bin Laden, one of the scions of the richest family of commoners in Saudi Arabia, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, from one of the most powerful families in Egypt (his great uncle Azzam Pasha was Secretary of the Arab League, and was promoting the Jihad against Israel back in 1948), and himself a doctor, why these are the two most famous Jihadists in the world? And could you explain why the various studies of the background of many hundreds of terrorists all conclude that they are, on average, better educated (many of them having attended college) and much better off, than the average resident of an Arab Muslim country?

Now please use a fresh blue-book for Question #2.

If "poverty" explains the violent and aggression of the Jihad, why is it that all over sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, and in the poorer cities of India and south Asia, that people far poorer, and far more desperate, than any in Morocco, never engage in anything like the Jihad -- though they certainly have lives more miserable and hopeless than the Jihadis of the various Arab and Musim states?

Question #1, you will see, goes to the issue of whether Poverity Is Necessary for the Jihad -- and suggests that it is not. Question #2 goes to the issue of whether Poverty is Sufficient for someone to engage in the Jihad, or in other acts of violence and aggression that would constitute a kind of Jihad, even if outside of Islam.

And the answers to #1 and #2,demonstrate conclusively that Poverty is Neither Necessary nor Sufficient an Explanation of Jihad.

But one thing -- and one thing only -- is necessary and sufficient to explain the Jihad as a world-wide phenomenon (with, of course, local expressions, and a kind of mix-n'-match of personnel, so that a Pakistani might be in Chechnya, a Chechen in Madrid, an Arab in Jalalabad or Bali, and so on).

And that explanation is: the Ideology of Islam.

So come weez me, not to ze Kasbah, M. Gresh, but to ze Tres Grande Bibliotheque, ze last monstrositay (apres les colonnes de Biran) of M. Mitterand, and togezaire we will read ze bookz about Islam, and you weel learn a lot, hein, and I can stop this Pepe-le-Moko routine, because it's getting on my nerves.

The old "Poverty breeds crime" defence for excusing away the violence within Islam.

Just reseach the upbringings of Hitler and Abe Lincoln, this poverty theory is insulting to all the hard working people that just want to pay the bills and raise a family.
Some people are predisposed to act out anger issue by physical means and anti-social behaviour,but low income people adjust to their
job skills and accept their lot in life.
Muslims appear to be predisposed to paranoia and denial from over-exposure to the Quran which
pounds into their brain the concept that Allah is the "Real" God and any opposition to it is an attack on Islam by the infidels becuase they fear the "Real" God of Muslims.
France has about 7 milliom Muslims and around 600,000 Jews,the antisemitic attacks by Muslims
is said to be fueled by the Jews having a very low unemployment rate while Muslim neighbourhoods
have high rates and overt poverty.
This is so typical for Muslims,instead of improving themselves to get good jobs,they attack the hard working people as the root cause for their poverty,remember they are the ones that use Sharia-law to punish females that deserve it because of the woman's actions.

Coming to a European city near you!

These conditions may not necessarily breed jihadists, but they do breed emigrants.

and if it's about "occupation" of one's motherland by hegemonic forces, as Noam Chomsky's followers would have you believe, then you'd think the Chinese would be subject to terrorist operations carried out by Tibetans.

waterdragon-
Please don't mention Noam Chomsky so close to mealtime. I think I'm going to be sick...

In researching something else, on Human Rights Watch, they have an article saying the same crap. That if we (the west) would just open the piggy bank and raise their standard of liviing, all this would go away.

I am constantly amazed at how delusional some people are.

The reason they live in proverty is because the Quran doesn't allow for individual thought, which would then lead to advancement of the mind, which leads to DOING something to change the circumstances in which they live.

Most of the leaders of these groups come from wealthy backgrounds, it's just that they've been programmed into little death robots for Allah's cause. To have some power in their lives.

And as far as Noam Chomsky is concerned............
spit! spit!

If poverty breeds revolution or crime, what could we say about "Carlos the Jackel," Fidel Castro, Che Guevarra, and a host of European Leftists, the sons and daughters of elite, that came, briefly caused trouble, fomented revolution, pain and suffering for millions, and disappeared from the world stage. (Of course Castro is still with us, but one hopes his days are numbered.) Bored rich kids with less talent and drive are still causing trouble on a smaller scale. Those with greater intellect grow up to be the Castros and the Guevarras, and the Red Brigades.

The rich, intellectual jihadists are tired of being on the bottom of the world's heap, and have reverted to the ploy of that old scoundrel that first scourged the desert with his "belief system." It IS amazing that his has lasted so long. Could it be because he and his successors created an organized, totalitarian system that spreads, enforces, and maintains that should be the envy of every dictator that ever lived. In fact, some actually adopted his system or have or are now using the system in the name of piety!

Susan_b:

They live in poverty for a number of reasons, not the least of which include the high birth rate (China and India figured that out a few decades ago), incredibly corrupt governments (we'll never know how much of the money Arafat looted went into bad business deals as well as financing his non-arms' length terror organizations like Al-Aqsa and Tanzim, and supporting their religious leaders, who live very well on the monies collected from Muslims around the world, some of which is intended for relief.

And what if "poverty" were the problem? Would it be the responsibility of the Infidel world to keep every Muslm happily prosperous, when the main cause of their own economic primitiveness is the fatalism, and statalism (for the ruler, however despotic, is to be obeyed as long as he is a Muslim)of Islam itself? Is that to be the Infidel Man's Burden -- keep Muslims permanently happy, and more so every day in every way, in a kind of calculated Coueism -- in order that they not bomb, kill, decapitate, riot, vandalize, rape, and so on? Hmmm. Might there be another, more elegant solution, such as attempting to point out how the belief-system itself, prevents intllectual activity, economic development, political freedom, social advancement?

This can be done best by ex-Muslims, not Infidels to the manner born -- for they know exactly what are the points of mental entry. Support them. Let them do their work. And let Infidels, now and permanently into the future, keep their powder dry.