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The Terrorists Motivation: Islam 7/27/2005 4:38:53 AM
For a Minister tell someone in the Western world that an apple is a peach would never be accepted. The same is true when moderate Muslim leaders tell Islamics that killing for their religious ideals is wrong. What we believe to be true, what we have been taught, influences our perspectives. http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4329
The Terrorists' Motivation: Islam
by Edwin A. Locke (July 24, 2005)
Summary: Their attempt to practice religion consistently explains the
terrorists' actions.
---
The continued attacks by Islamic terrorists against the West--most
recently, the horrific suicide bombings in London--have led many to ask, what is the
motivation of the terrorists? Commentators are eager to offer a bevy of
pseudo-explanations--poverty, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
etc.--while
ignoring the motivation the terrorists themselves openly proclaim:
Islam.
The near silence about the true role of Islam in motivating Islamic
terrorists has two main causes: multiculturalism and religion.
Multiculturalism asserts that all cultures are equal and therefore none
may
criticize another; intellectuals and politicians are therefore
reluctant to
declare the obvious superiority of Western culture to Islamic culture.
And
the strong commitment to religion of many Americans, especially
conservatives, makes them reluctant to indict a religion as the cause
of a
massive evil. But if we are to identify the fundamental cause of the
terrorists' actions, we must understand at least two fundamental
premises of
the religion they kill for.
First, Islam, like all religions, rejects reason as a means of gaining
knowledge and guiding action; it holds that all important truths are
grasped
by faith in supernatural beings and sacred texts. The Koran explicitly
states that knowledge comes from revelation, not thinking.
(Christianity in
pure form entails a similar rejection of reason, but it has been heavily
diluted and secularized since the Renaissance.) Islam advocates the
subordination of every sphere of life to religious dogma, including the
legal system, politics, economics, and family life; the word "Islam"
means
literally: submission. The individual is not supposed to think
independently
but to selflessly subordinate himself to the dictates of his religion
and
its theocratic representatives. We have seen this before in the
West--it was
called the Dark Ages.
Second, as with any religion that seeks converts, a derivative tenet of
Islam is that it should be imposed by force (you cannot persuade
someone of
the non-rational). The Koran is replete with calls to take up arms in
its
name: "fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them . . . those who
reject our signs we shall soon cast into the fire . . . those who
disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid
will be
poured down on their heads . . . as to the deviators, they are the fuel
of
hell."
These ideas easily lead to fanaticism and terrorism. In fact, what is
often
referred to as the "fanaticism" of many Muslims is explicitly endorsed
by
their religion. Consider the following characteristics of religious
fanatics. The fanatic demands unquestioning obedience to religious
dogma--so
does Islam. The fanatic cannot be reasoned with, because he rejects
reason--so does Islam. The fanatic eagerly embraces any call to impose
his
dogma by force on those who will not adopt it voluntarily--so does
Islam.
The terrorists are not "un-Islamic" bandits who have "hijacked a great
religion"; they are consistent and serious followers of their religion.
It is true that many Muslims who live in the West (like most Christians)
reject religious fanaticism and are law-abiding and even loyal
citizens, but
this is because they have accepted some Western values, including
respect
for reason, a belief in individual rights, and the need for a separation
between church and state. It is only to the extent that they depart from
their religion--and from a society that imposes it--that they achieve
prosperity, freedom, and peace.
In the last year, there has been more and more of a call for a "War of
Ideas"--an intellectual campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of the
Arab
world that will discourage and discredit Islamic terrorism.
Unfortunately,
the centerpiece of this campaign so far has been to appeal to Muslims
with
claims that Islam is perfectly consistent with Western ideals, and
inconsistent with terrorism. America has groveled to so-called
"moderate"
Muslim leaders to strongly repudiate terrorism, with little success.
(Those
leaders have focused little energy on damning Islamic fanaticism, and
much
on the alleged sins of the US government.) Such a campaign cannot work,
since insofar as these "moderates" accept Islam, they cannot
convincingly
oppose violence in its name. A true "War of Ideas" would be one in
which we
proclaim loudly and with moral certainty the secular values we stand
for:
reason, rights, freedom, material prosperity, and personal happiness on
this
earth.
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