6/10/2007
Of politics, race and religion
Several JI operatives were detained by ISD again. And the faces are familiar, Muslim and Malay. But this time round there were no under currents by other groups to point the finger at the Malay community. Perhaps the process of educating the people to look at it as a problem not of a community but a few individuals has been a success. Also, this time the area of focus is the Middle East and Afghanistan, quite far away.
The attraction in this case is the surfacing of an elite, a trained lawyer, who is motivated enough to give up his cosy lifestyle of comfort and material well being to risk his life in the rough and tumble of the war torn mountains of Afghanistan.
Why is the movement gaining momentum despite the claims of success by the western media? Or is the western media's spin just a spin, and the movement is gaining grounds and growing stronger?
For those who are reading the western media, the impression is a simple good guys against the bad guys, modernity against backwardness, secularity against religion, the west against the muslims or arabs. And it is very easy to choose to be on the right side of goodness.
Apparently if one is to read the Middle Eastern or Muslim media, the picture is quite different. It is a picture of western oppression and injustice against the arabs and muslims, a war of suppression by the west against Islam, a war for control of Arab oil.
So, is this a problem of politics or religion, or of race? It seems that it is a combination of all, and economics as well. Control of the Middle East, control of oil, control of media, control of values and control of a people and their religion.
But the western media will say no, it is the uplifting of a backward people, a shining light of progress in democracy, human rights and materialism leading the way. The west and western media see themselves as the liberators of a feudal people locked away in time and stubbornly refusing to live and enjoy the life of modernity and secularism.
And these people say, leave us alone to our life. We don't need you to meddle with our life and dictate to us your values.
And so the fighting and killing continues.
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2 comments:
Everytime the cops catch a few of these fuckers, I for one don't feel any 'relief'. If they got a couple of buggers, how many are really out there?
I think you're shooting widly if you attemt to speculate and moralise about terrorist organisations, their motives and "whose fault" it is.
Hatred and motivation to killing is seldom 'rational', although the perpetrators often do 'rationalise' — as evidenced by the occasional video promising more mayhem for the free world.
Many of the rank and file 'followers' themselves are ignorant and mostly dumb in-bred idiots, with low self-esteem that they become easy targets for recruitment. They believe everything they are told, especially the part where it says that folks like us who enjoy our lives listening to loud music and dancing, drinking alcohol, eating too much, buying luxuries — all the fruits of capitalism and freedom... and we are hated for it.
Religion then becomes a powerful 'cleansing tool', to cleanse the world of infidels like us, because this is the will of some 'Supreme Being'.
Religion is absolute and unquestionalble, thus making it an ideal way to manipulate young people, devoid of any purpose in their life, and thus easily manipulated into surrendering their individual identity to the whims of the group leaders.
It is COLLECTIVISM all over again.
i don't think i am moralising. otherwise i will stick to aside which i think is right.
i am just looking at what motivates these people. and they are not affected by the same motivators. some are seduced by power and politics, some by god, some by ignorance, some plain stupid.
they are in but for all kinds of reasons.
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