ARTICLE: What Makes a Muslim Radical?, by John L. Esposito, Dalia Mogahed, Foreign Policy Web ExclusiveAnother good myth-busting piece that shows Foreign Policy is on top of its game.
And yet it misleads by focusing so much on foot soldiers and acting as though decoding their enlistment decision reveals all.
I mean, would similar analysis of our soldiers tell you everything you'd need to know about what's right and wrong with America?
Frankly, we learn more about this struggle by how they fight than why they fight--much less who fights.
Still, the anaysis (based on polls) hits it on the head regarding motivation: this is all about fear of losing control and--conversely--the perceived ceding of control to others.
So yeah, as globalization encroaches on these traditional societies and as--in natural, yin-yang response--"globalised Islam" (Olivier Roy's apt term) encroaches upon the Core (especially freaking-out Europe), each side fears--in mirror-image fashion--a loss of control, which at its root constitutes the far more dreaded fear of loss of identity (meaning Fukuyama's "wars of the spirit" still explains far more than Huntington's simplistic "clash").
Thanks to Joseph for sending this in.
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Comments (4)
"encroaches upon the Core (especially freaking-out Europe), each side fears--in mirror-image fashion--a loss of control, which at its root constitutes the far more dreaded fear of loss of identity"
And here is also the great difference btw the US and EU. The US is afraid of terror, the EU not (Italy, Spain, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany all have/had it and are used to it). While the EU is afraid of loss of identity and the US not.
Posted by Hans Suter | November 22, 2006 4:47 AM
Excellent point, Hans.
Posted by Tom Barnett | November 22, 2006 1:58 PM
What Makes a Muslim Radical?
Could it be Islam?
Posted by Ian | November 23, 2006 2:56 PM
Ian, and a Rigthwinger, a Lefty, a Catholic, a poet, a drummer, a .......
Posted by Hans Suter | November 24, 2006 3:05 AM