My notes on terrorism:
We look at terrorism in the Islamic world, and we see fundamentalist muslims risking or sacrificing life and limb to destroy the lives and limbs of others. This practice is wrong, and denounced by Islam. Why then, do they do it? To answer that question, we first have to understand the worldviews of the two different cultures that are facing off.
Christianity, to most people, has fallen from a way of life into a form of entertainment. With the advent of technologies to occupy the attentions of run-of-the-mill Americans, they have forgotten the teachings of Christ, and even tried to justify forgetting them. This has lead to general moral chaos, resulting in the acceptance of such blasphemous things as abortion and gay marriage, and so on. To truly understand how America has slipped from its moral standards, one should look at the Puritan values of the past, and compare that to the mud-slinging of today's western world.
In my opinion, this downward spiral was caused by luxury and pleasure-want. As time progressed, America realized its wealth of natural resources and threw itself into the arms of luxury, and love of money/love of pleasure is the root of all evil. As the wealth increased, so did the greed, and eventually, when the frontier closed, the Americans set their sights on other countries, and imperialized them with their economic way of life. This is how they spread the evil culture they had created.
Now, the muslims realize that when there is a McDonalds in every Arab city, they will also have become Americanized, westernized, and, in a word, subdued. Who fights wars? Certainly not the rich and fat...only when there is reason to rebell will people do so; and fat people are happy people. Happy people do not rebel. The majority, however, of the Islamic Ummah is leaning towards that sense of pleasure and luxury.
The minority realize this, and are reacting to it the only way they know how: violence. They bomb and slaughter to show disapproval, (which is wrong) because they know that when the American culture creeps into the Muslim world, Islam will also become just another piece of entertainment: just another option. Would you like a Big Screen LCD Plasma TV, or a copy of the Holy Qu'ran? Would you like 12,000 channels or the Holy Qu'ran? Would you like to have mouth-watering foods every day or a copy of the Holy Qu'ran? Would you like a PS3 or an XboX Live, or the Holy Qu'ran?
As of now, the Middle Eastern world, in general, does what it does because it thinks it is in the best interest of it's faith and eternal salvation. Whereas, the American people have resigned themselves to a philosophy of 'human nature is every man acting in the best interest of himself'.
In short, Terrorism is a reactionary response to the fear of loss of identity associated with losing ones culture to another, especially one that will impact the world one knows in a negative, even demeaning way.
Subject: Terrorism: Radical or Reactionary? By: Ali Rae 
March 14th 2007, 4:22 pm
