I don't think that the United States, (as you so proudly procliam and agree with) being a secularist Nation, is targeted because if it's religion. I also don't think that our dislike of terrorism, of the culture of ISIS, has anything to do with religion.
NADA, Nunja, NOTHING! It is a cultural distinction, and a conflict of ideologies. Admittedly Western culture has a tinge of religious influence, and the Islamic Ideology also contains aspects of religion. But that's not the central issue. On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 3:55 PM, plainolamerican <[email protected]> wrote: > 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]> >> ------------------------------ >> >> >> 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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