-Jean-Francois Revel
Gwynne Dyer from the Salt Lake Tribune doesn’t deny that Nidal Hasan’s faith played a role in his going postal jihadi:
Let’s see, now. A devout Muslim officer, born in the United States but of Palestinian ancestry, is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in the near future. He opens fire on his fellow soldiers, shouting “Allahu akbar.” (”God is great” in Arabic.) What can his motive have been? Hard to guess, isn’t it? Was he unhappy about his promotion prospects? Hmm.
But what else does Dyer do? Blame America and the West for its campaign of warfare and persecution of Muslims:
America’s wars in Muslim lands overseas are radicalizing Muslims at home. Never mind that the home-grown Muslim terrorists who attacked the London transport system in 2005, and the various Muslim plotters who have been caught in other Western countries before their plans came to fruition, have almost all blamed the Western invasions of Muslim countries for radicalizing them.
Never mind, above all, that what really radicalized them was the fact that those invasions made no sense in terms of Western security. No Afghan has ever attacked the United States, although Arabs living in Afghanistan were involved in the planning of 9/11. There were no terrorists in Iraq, no weapons of mass destruction, and no contacts between Saddam and al-Qaida. So why did the U.S. invade those countries?
The real reasons are panic and ignorance, reinforced by militaristic reflexes and laced with liberal amounts of racism. But people find it hard to believe that big, powerful governments like those of the United States, Britain and the other Western powers involved in these foolish adventures could really be so stupid, so the conspiracy theories proliferate.
It is a testimony to the moderation and loyalty of Muslim communities in the West that so few of their members have succumbed to these conspiracy theories.
Lessee……
America is to blame for the dysfunction going on in the modern era of the Middle East? Racist America is “holding the Muslim man down”? American imperialism is responsible?
FA has found unclassified evidence from the U.S. Department of Defense (and hat tip to CJ, whose excellent milblog A Soldier’s Perspective is now on inactive duty) showing shocking and graphic day to day activities of the U.S. military’s campaign of aggression against Muslims:
U.S. soldier teases and mocks Afghan children:
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