In the incident in France, the guy who was beheaded was killed elsewhere, and he was the boss of the guy accused of the attack and neither worked for the gas plant (the accused’s company delivered to the plant, the accused had done many deliveries there according to what I read). We don’t know why the guy did this, apparently he was 30 years old and had 3 kids, why he turned radical, why he self described himself as a disciple of ISIS, that will probably come out.
As far as blaming Islam, it is complicated. Islam like all religions has a backstory so to speak, and the Q’ran and the teachings of the religion reflect its origins. Islam was born out of Bedouin culture initially, and that influenced a lot of the ideas there, the tribalism, the us versus them mentality, the social justice aspects of Islam (which in some ways far outpace concepts in Christianity and Judaism IMO), are all parts of the past. Some of it reflects the absorption of other cultures, that wiped out pre-existing Islamic culture, such as when the Mongols sacked what is now Iraq and adopted Islam. The culture in that area at that time was pretty advanced (11th century or so), Baghdad was a seat of learning, was part of the culture of discovery in astronomy and chemistry we still use today in language, an 11th century Baghdad intellectual basically created the scientific method; the mongols were obviously war like, and it was they that put in a lot of the aggressiveness and such and it changed over time. Sadly, some of this became standard faith to some people, turning Jihad from being a war of self protection to being one of aggression for example. The Q’Ran itself has intemperate language, that like the Old and New Testaments has been used to justify all kinds of horrible actions.
The other thing to keep about is that these same crazies is that they pose a threat to Muslims. A mosque was just bombed in Kuwait, that killed people praying, and while most of those killed in Tunisia were foreign, muslims are dying in these attacks, too (not to mention that with this happening, Tunisia as a whole will suffer, tourists will stay away).
It is frustrating, because it is hard speaking for myself not to get angry, not to see the hate, the horrible acts, and I have said things in retrospect I shouldn’t have. It is especially hard because this radicalization is not a government, it isn’t a country, it is hitting all over, and often seems to get people involved you wonder why. There is no doubt that it is based around Islam, around radial Imans and such preaching the hate and whatnot, but you also have to keep in mind Islam is not the Catholic Church or any other church, in the tradition anyone can proclaim themselves an Iman (I guess it is kind of like televangelists in the US), and fire people up.
I think there is criticism that is warranted, I think that for example the Saudi role in all of this has been deliberately kept quiet, a lot of this radicalization happened because the Saudi’s sponsored islamic Madras schools all over the world, teaching their uber fundamentalist form of Islam (W’Habi’ism), a lot of Saudi oil revenue went into this, and that helped create a good part of the radicalization we have seen. There also has been a hesitancy on the part of Muslims to criticize fellow Muslims or stand up to them, when you have Muslim religious leaders who will put a death price on the head of a writer (Salmon Rushdie) because they felt his book was blasphemous, yet have remained amazingly silent for example on the heads of ISIS or Al Qaeda, who if you think about it, by their actions are doing a lot more harm to the faith then Rushdie did, yet no Fatwahs, no death prices. Heck, the Saudi’s could afford to put prices on the heads of those groups and get action, but they don’t.
The reality is that most muslims are peaceful, what is disconcerting is that kids from families who are not radical, who aren’t hateful or anti anything, turn out to be radicalized. Some parents are going to have to make some tough decisions, if their kid suddenly starts talking all this radical nonsense, wants to go to Yemen or some such place, they may be faced with turning in their own kid. The real answer is figuring out why groups like ISIS are even attractive, how could young women want to go and join them, when they will be treated basically like a piece of property of a motorcycle gang (the description, by the way, came from a Muslim cleric, I thought it a good one). I do think that at some point the Muslim world , as disparate and different as it is, is going to need to wake up and realize that groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda are not Muslim and that they pose a major threat to everyone else, and need to be dealt with. How that will happen is anyone’s guess, when you are dealing with a group of people numbering over a billion people, where there are so many different cultures and beliefs and sects, that isn’t easy, I think a large part is waking up to the fact that these groups pose a major threat to them and their lives. I guess the rough equivalent is the attitude of people in the US to terrorism before 1993 and especially September 11th, where before that for most of us it was something that happened “over there”, in the 14 years since terrorism is now a major part of our lives and perceptions of things.
