"Stop asking what you have done wrong"


A reformed Muslim imperialist lays it on the line about militant Islam and North American reaction to it. Our guilt makes us weak.
This National Post interview lets Dr. Tawfik Hamid say some unusual things.

He leans back, takes a deep breath and moves to another area, one that he says is far too seldom discussed: "North Americans are too squeamish about discussing the obvious sexual dynamic behind suicide bombings. If they understood contemporary Islamic society, they would understand the sheer sexual tension of Sunni Muslim men. Look at the figures for suicide bombings and see how few are from the Shiite world. Terrorism and violence yes, but not suicide. The overwhelming majority are from Sunnis. Now within the Shiite world there are what is known as temporary marriages, lasting anywhere from an hour to 95 years. It enables men to release their sexual frustrations.

"Islam condemns extra-marital sex as well as masturbation, which is also taught in the Christian tradition. But Islam also tells of unlimited sexual ecstasy in paradise with beautiful virgins for the martyr who gives his life for the faith. Don't for a moment underestimate this blinding passion or its influence on those who accept fundamentalism."

A pause. "I know. I was one who accepted it."

This partial explanation is shocking more for its banality than its horror. Mass murder provoked partly by simple lust. But it cannot be denied that letters written by suicide bombers frequently dwell on waiting virgins and sexual gratification.

"The sexual aspect is, of course, just one part of this. But I can tell you what it is not about. Not about Israel, not about Iraq, not about Afghanistan. They are mere excuses. Algerian Muslim fundamentalists murdered 150,000 other Algerian Muslims, sometimes slitting the throats of children in front of their parents. Are you seriously telling me that this was because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians or American foreign policy?"

He's exasperated now, visibly angry at what he sees as a willful Western foolishness. "Stop asking what you have done wrong. Stop it! They're slaughtering you like sheep and you still look within. You criticize your history, your institutions, your churches. Why can't you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have done but with what they want."

After 9-11, I wanted to understand why. I found that the usual explanations didn't hold water, maybe because most explanations came from the same groups that had long advocated a foreign policy based on guilt.

When I started reading the translations of the daily speeches of the more radical imams, it was soon obvious that American guilt (and to a lesser extent Western guilt) weren't the primary reasons, just the tools to be exploited.

That is when I started reading between the lines. The Islamist agenda is based on manipulating guilt.

It is the one way they can win.

Hat tip Brain Terminal.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - December 29, 2006 at 06:53 AM  Tag


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