Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Root causes; shmoot causes

The Left clings desperately to the idea that this whole war with Islamofacism is our fault, because we've trodden down upon the Muslim masses and, true to Marxist doctrine, those masses are now rebelling. How is the Left going to square that outdated theory with this type of report:

Al-Qaeda is secretly recruiting affluent, middle-class Muslims in British universities and colleges to carry out terrorist attacks in this country, leaked Whitehall documents reveal. A network of “extremist recruiters” is circulating on campuses targeting people with “technical and professional qualifications”, particularly engineering and IT degrees. *** The Whitehall dossier, ordered by Tony Blair following last year’s train bombings in Madrid, says: “Extremists are known to target schools and colleges where young people may be very inquisitive but less challenging and more susceptible to extremist reasoning/ arguments.” *** Most of the Al-Qaeda recruits tend to be loners “attracted to university clubs based on ethnicity or religion” because of “disillusionment with their current existence”. British-based terrorists are made up of different ethnic groups, according to the documents. “They range from foreign nationals now naturalised and resident in the UK, arriving mainly from north Africa and the Middle East, to second and third generation British citizens whose forebears mainly originate from Pakistan or Kashmir. “In addition . . . a significant number come from liberal, non-religious Muslim backgrounds or (are) only converted to Islam in adulthood. These converts include white British nationals and those of West Indian extraction.” The Iraq war is identified by the dossier as a key cause of young Britons turning to terrorism. The analysis says: “It seems that a particularly strong cause of disillusionment among Muslims, including young Muslims, is a perceived ‘double standard’ in the foreign policy of western governments, in particular Britain and the US. “The perception is that passive ‘oppression’, as demonstrated in British foreign policy, eg non-action on Kashmir and Chechnya, has given way to ‘active oppression’. The war on terror, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, are all seen by a section of British Muslims as having been acts against Islam.”
As I read it, one of the those motivations powering these middle class kids and converts is their perception that the masses are downtrodden and need their help. That is, contrary to the Left view, this is not a Marxist class uprising fueled by religion, this is a Middle Class action, fueled by anti-Semitism, religious rage, and the belief these middle class idealogues cherish that they are charging in on their white horses to rescue the oppressed masses. UPDATE: Here's Chrenkoff's insightful (as always) take on the same information.