Changing The Culture That Produces Terrorism

26 Sep, 2002 by John Hawkins

Print this article Font size -16+

Changing The Culture That Produces Terrorism: Arab News is an anti-American & Anti-Semitic paper out of Saudi Arabia that generally posts the sort of offensive spew most people have come to associate with the government controlled press of the Middle-East. However, every once and a while you’ll find a nugget in the offal when you’re reading Arab News. Here are some quotes from one such nugget….

“The attack on a Hindu temple in Gandhinagar in India’s Gujarat state was an act of utter barbarity. It was also, if Muslim militants were responsible as the first indications seem to suggest, an act of sheer lunacy because Muslims will be the victims, possibly in their thousands. …”

Wait a second — he’s admitting that yes, Muslims could have committed such an atrocity? He’s also blaming THE TERRORISTS for the mistreatment of Muslims that may very well occur in India as a result of the attacks? That’s a break from the norm. The writer then continues to hammer away at the terrorists…

“A link to Kashmir is more than likely, given the timing of the attack. But it is impossible to begin to understand the train of thought behind the act. Those who carried it out cannot surely have been so stupid as to believe that any good could come out of it. There can be no victors, only victims. Or did they see themselves as the victors? In which case this was the ultimate ego trip: a few minutes of a delusion of victory, at the cost of the corpses of so many, not just the tens of Hindus already killed, but also of Muslims – hundreds? thousands? – who might be killed as well.”

Did he just suggest that the attackers were “stupid” if they thought any good could come out of the terrorist attacks? The “delusion of victory” comment is spot on too. After all, you don’t win wars by murdering people praying in a temple. The final paragraph is right on target as well…

“There is another, even greater, reason for despair. This barbarity, along with the equally barbarous execution-style murder of six Christian charity workers in Karachi, does unimaginable harm to Islam….There has to be an end to such evil. The victims are not only those who get killed. It is also Islam’s good name. That affects every individual Muslim the world over.”

He just called terrorism “evil” and described it as a “barbarity” that negatively effects “Islam’s good name.” I love that because it’s all true. You’ll also notice that the author didn’t give a quick “bloodless” denunciation of terrorism and then move on to describing all the things he thinks are wrong with Pakistan (which is a typical tactic of terrorism apologists.) This is the type of honest and genuine refutation of terrorists and terrorism that I’d love to see regularly in Arab News. Let’s hope it starts a trend.