Good morning, boys and girls. Today Mr. Whitesheets and Mr. Noose will fail to agree on multiculturalism. Later on Mr. Greenfatigues will show us all how peace is our profession.

Those who would be described as the "disenfranchised" are a part of every society, every culture, every religion. Such people generally look toward a rallying point to give their existence meaning. Sometimes that rallying point is positive, but all too often it is directed in a negative manner. Cultists know this. Savvy political leaders know this. Leaders of terrorist organizations know this. The disenfranchised are the bread and butter in such leaders' efforts to secure power, money and influence.

The fundamentalist right in the U.S. is an example of people who have felt marginalized, whether rightly so or not. The Republicans knew this and exploited it to their ultimate advantage. If their leaders began paying attention to their out-of-the-mainstream beliefs about gays, religion, and foreigners, then they would be sure to follow along with the rest of their newly chosen leaders' other pursuits, even when those pursuits ultimately harmed the followers' true interests.

Everyone wants to feel like he or she has a bigger role to play on life's stage, whether it's a church-going miner from West Virginia or an unemployed Pakistani youth from west London. And when powerful, charismatic individuals move in to fill the leadership void in such people's lives, it doesn't take much to move them in any direction, including that which may cause great harm to the devoted believer. It's a fundamental part of any society and will continue to be so as long as humans continue to exist on this planet.

the new york times has an interesting article on british moslems, particularly second generation ... the generation of children of the immigrants who came to britain for steady work in the textile plants ... work that is just not there for their kids .. (sound familiar?)

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/world/europe/13muslims.html

Many of the first wave of immigrants were from rural Pakistan, spoke poor English and never integrated much. But the generation that is coming of age now is caught between the traditionalism of their parents and the Western ideas they have been born in to, and the result can be toxic.

“They are deeply confused, because they have been brought up in Britain and are actually very Westernized,” Mr. Ballard said. “They’re seeking to discover an Islam through Western ideas.” And, he said, they are rereading in literal terms.

Muslim ties to tradition are reinforced by frequent visits to where their families came from, and by arranged marriages to cousins who are likely to come from small Pakistani villages.

Feeling apart from mainstream society, finding it hard to get work in the depressed former mill towns near Manchester and Birmingham, some young men turn to local mosques — often run by imams who have moved from rural Pakistan themselves — as social, religious and educational centers.

The article also suggests that these disappointments combined with the failure to be satified or successful with "slacker" culture drives kids to the mosques seaching for "meaning" ... funny it's reminding me of the religious/spiritual revival of Jesus freaks and the arrival of folks like Yogi Bajhan, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (the original red thread purveyor) and others in the 1970s as an antidote from some fed up with the excesses of the 1960s .. whatever.

I'd add a salt shaker or two since "we" all tend to overlay our cultural/emotional/empathic slant on such "other culture" reporting, regardless of how "sympathetic" and "open" we try to do ... it's not simply the actual linguistic vocabulary that's inadequate ... somethings really just don't translate easily if at all.

nonetheless, most folks do not wake up in the morning ready to not just die for something ... willing to be obliterated by it.... (though I do think young-adult quasi-suicidal angst is a genuine factor)... most people have other things worry about or occupy them ... whatever. Yes, I do think "understanding" where these young men are coming from is important; no, that doesn't "mitigate" much of anything.

>I was just wondering why I should respect cultures/religions that preach the gospel of female inferiority.<

I continue to wonder why some women love to demonize "non-white" cultures/religions when the ones they are often part of pull similar repression. Conclusion: such women freak out over female repression when it is those eevviill brown devils doing it and are totally in denial that "good white men" do the same thing.

Despite the vigorous PR campaign to portray jihadists as poor, misunderstood victims of western cultural imperialism, the fact remains that the goal of Jihad, that is, "struggle", is to impose Islam on the infidel by force. An infidel is anyone who is not muslim. Period. The murderous actions of jihadists are in accord with both the Qur'an and the Hadith. This is what people do not understand--and what the media in the US and Europe seem to be in denial about.

It has been suggested by well-intentioned Salon letter writers that Islam, being the youngest of major world religions, is at a developmental stage roughly equivalent to that of the Catholic church before the Reformation. I think this argument is simplistic but it did make me think. Do we truly want to extinguish the unprecedented, and hard won, flowering of Western civilization--the idea of religious pluralism, freedom of speech, of thought, emancipation of women, the end of slavery, among many others--to return to the Dark Ages in the name of "making nice" to a religious practice that not only is the opposite of all that, but the tenets of which demands world dominance, not merely to be one practice among many. I am a buddhist--and thankful that I live in a country that permits me to practice freely and without paying a bribe, a jizya, to a dominant theocracy.

Conclusion: such women freak out over female repression when it is those eevviill brown devils doing it and are totally in denial that "good white men" do the same thing.

I don't live in denial when "good white men" do the same. Women in the US worked long and hard for such things as title 9, the right to attend universities, establish our own lines of credit etc. Very long and very hard fight. I remember being bullied by white men when I attented the university in the 70's. I didn't belong there, I was told. I persevered anyway, with no social or family support,as women often had to. And to see muslim men come into the US, a country they've never helped defend, or build, and decide to run me off the rode because I'm a female and according to their belief system, shouldn't drive, is indefensible. They would happiliy roll back all rights women fought so hard for. And while you men jump in glee at the thought of us wimmins being shoved back in our place, they don't like white men much either. They don't like whites or westerners period.