why does the study of terrorism often deny religious motivation? --- ask Keith ... who doesn't think that religion has anything to do with the war between muzzies, jews and xians.
On Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 2:09:30 PM UTC-6, Travis wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/12094171/Terror-stalks-the-Academy-why-does-the-study-of-terrorism-often-deny-religious-motivation.html > Terror stalks the Academy: why does the study of terrorism often deny > religious motivation? - Telegraph > > Henry Kissinger observed that academic politics are so vicious because the > stakes are so low. The politics remain vicious, but as continuing > revelations of the campus activity of Islamists in the UK and elsewhere > suggest, the stakes are now considerably higher than the good Doctor > opined. > > As campuses gear up for a new term, it might be worth asking why is it > that university administrators and the academic study of terrorism has, too > often, denied the importance of religion – a or more accurately religious > ideology – in the recruitment to transnational networks like al-Qaeda and > Islamic State and even welcomes former Guantanamo internees like Moazzem > Begg to lecture students in ‘safe spaces’ ? > > As a number of and ex-Islamist followers, like *Shiraz Maher* > <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11437703/Jihadi-John-identity-revealed-Cage-claims-that-MI5-drove-Mohammed-Emwazi-to-extremism-are-pathetic.html> > > and Ed Husain, have pointed out, the second and third generation migrants > brought up in secular, multicultural liberal democracies, but not attached > to them, faced a dilemma. > > Unimpressed by western secularism, they are also alienated from the > kinship ties and traditions of their Asian roots that they find lacking in > style and sophistication. > > Consequently they discover in a sui generis Islamism that promotes a > transnational caliphate a solution to their alienation that resolves the > tension between tradition and secularism. > > From this perspective a Koranic absolutism meets the requirements of an > Islamic lifestyle and serves as an antidote to turmoil in the jahalihyya > world attached to life, sensuality and ignorance. > > However, the ideological glue cementing the British jihadi movement draws > as much from Gramsci as Mohammad, and insists on a strategy of capturing > educational institutions for consciousness raising purposes. > > In its most recent evolution, it is not only Gramsci, but also Frankfurt > school and post-colonial discourse theories that seek emancipation from the > global capitalist order that the transnational Islamist mind finds highly > congenial. > Rejecting religious explanation > > Yet many academic theorists and commentators often reject this > interpretation of campus extremism. Why? The answer is not hard to find. > Ever since 9/11 liberal political elites, academe and state broadcasters > have consistently denied any connection between political religion, in its > Islamist form, and religiously inspired violence. > > [image: Description: 7/7 terror attacks: Archive photos from the London > terrorist attacks of 7 July 2005]The number 30 double-decker bus in > Tavistock Square, which was destroyed by a bomb in the 7/7 attacks Photo: > Peter Macdiarmid/PA > > After London 7/7 or more recently Paris a predictable chorus of experts > appear in the media to claim the latest outrage has nothing to do with > religion. Well might they. For the past decade, grants, and chairs in > terror or peace and conflict studies have been dedicated not only to > showing modern terrorism has no Islamic association but even if it does, it > is part of a wider, anti-capitalist ‘resistance’ by the rest to the West. > > Thus, although mainstream analysts since 9/11 recognise that Islamist > plots discovered or carried out successfully, begin in Europe, they quickly > move on to deny these actions have anything to do with Islam. David > Kilcullen, known for his role in the promotion of the post-2006 Iraq surge, > confidently pronounces that ‘Islamic theology has nothing to do with > violence’. > > [image: Description: Amedy Coulibaly got the arms used in the Paris terror > attacks from Belgian gangs]Amedy Coulibaly, who in January 2015 killed a > policewoman in Paris and another four people in a kosher supermarket > Photo: AFP > Islamism as anti-capitalism > > More disturbingly still, critical theory, a fashionable academic orthodoxy > that has established a grip over many UK and Australian departments of > political science and international studies since 9/11 contends not only > has post 9/11 terror and insurgency no relation to religion, it is in fact > an anti-capitalist response and constitutes part of a global ‘resistance’ > movement. > > The last decade has witnessed a proliferation of peer reviewed academic > articles and books that reinforce this message. Tracing this critical > posture reveals, how deeply imbued contemporary academe has become with a > distinctive species of anti-western self-loathing. > > From these works we learn for example that ‘the rhetoric of freedom and > the democratic way of life it upholds inflames the Muslim community’. The > antidote is not to condemn this viewpoint, but to enter into ‘force free > dialogue’ with the forces of resistance. > > Such fashionably relativist theorising shares an elective affinity with > Muslim ‘resistance’. From this perspective, the market and the west > perpetuate the real global violence, not terrorists, who merely resist the > capitalist behemoth. > > Reading Islamism as a form of revolutionary Marxism with a religious > facade enables the empathic western theorist to present the Islamist in > more attractive academic garb as a fellow critic ‘representing a > distinctive combination of Islamic and enlightenment thought’. > > Not surprisingly Islamism’s most effective online journals like Inspire or > *Dabiq > embrace this unmasking of the true sources of terrorism* > <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/12002726/The-grey-zone-How-Isis-wants-to-divide-the-world-into-Muslims-and-crusaders.html>. > > They also consider the war on terror ‘a narrative’ and a distorted western > ‘construct’ that Islamism ‘deconstructs’, and accepts that orientalism and > colonialism are the real causes of their ‘radical’ reaction. > Rejecting realism > > Such a discourse is made possible because in many western campuses the > study of International relations has, since the end of the cold war, > rejected the realist attempt to depict the world as it is, in order to > pursue an idealist and emancipatory agenda that promotes global justice and > uncoerced communication. In this realism free zone, there are no material > threats only negative discourses. Indeed, the west discursively engendered > the Islamist threat in order to curtail civil liberty and create the > surveillance state. > > Yet as Moazzem Begg has interestingly pointed out ‘blaming the government > for our actions… Did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also > drew away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence > Islamist theology’. > > The relativist approaches that now dominate the academic study of > terrorism reflect the political confusion that has overtaken the west since > 9/11. > Academic delusions > > The global jihadism that confronts western society in the particularly > virulent form of the Islamic State is, like all wars, informed by political > will and ideology. > > Critical theory and campus administrators deny this, preferring to address > second order phenomenon that demand empathy with a misunderstood ‘other’. > > But this misreads the nature of the threat. > > Ultimately, to empathise with Islamism and provide it with a justification > for its hyper-megalomaniacal violence is delusional. Such a delusion, > ironically, depends on the liberal pluralist tolerance that both Islamic > state and critical theory otherwise abhor. As a consequence of this > histrionic attempt at understanding the ‘root’ of Islamist inspired > violence there has arisen a curious disjuncture between what Islamists say > and have said for a while, and what the critical academic says they mean > and what Islamists actually do. > > *David Martin Jones is Visiting Professor, Department of War Studies, > King’s College London. M.L.R. Smith is Professor of Strategic Theory, > Department of War Studies, King’s College London.* > > > > > > > __._,_.___ > ------------------------------ > Posted by: "Beowulf" <[email protected] <javascript:>> > ------------------------------ > > > Visit Your Group > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmdnZjNDc4BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0NTI2MjQxNDQ-> > > > - New Members > > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/members/all;_ylc=X3oDMTJnbXBvZmozBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2bWJycwRzdGltZQMxNDUyNjI0MTQ0> > > 1 > > [image: Yahoo! 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