August 14, 2006
In Honor Of
At least 50 newborn babies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been named after Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah over the past month, sources in the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
This is the most depressing thing I have read in a long time. One must wonder about any culture in which people honor terrorists by naming their children after them. There is a school of thought which says that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Using this logic, the above story is the equivalent of 18th century Americans naming their sons after George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Except, the comparison doesn't work. People who are considered freedom fighters generally fight to bring their countrymen a better way of life. Even the Viet Cong in Vietnam believed that everyone, from the North AND the South, would be better off once the war was won. They were wrong, but you can at least say that they were probably trying to make people's lives better. Can Hezzbollah say that? No.
The Middle East is mired in a culture of death. It seems that the ultimate goal of every terror group in the region is the destruction of Israel, the US and/or all of western society. Then what? There seems to be no discussions of freedom, either physical, economic, religious or otherwise. There is only talk of pushing Jews into the sea, as if they are some sort of oppressor who must be destroyed. If that is true, then they wish to to replace one overseer with another, a seventh-century caliphate that treats women like cattle and kills anyone who is not a Muslim. This is worth dying for?
The children named after terrorists will one day learn the source of those names. They will begin to view them as heroes, just like their parents do now. The hate will continue for another generation.
Posted by Matthew at August 14, 2006 09:12 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Let me quote a passage from a book that was written in 1955 that does a good job (IMHO) of describing the Muslim mindset. "Like a true Muslim, he contemplated the beauties of military discipline. There could be nothing, he reflected, to equal a government which was simply the honest enforcement, by means of the sword, of the laws of Islam." That comes from a book by Paul Bowles titled "The Spider's House". Yes, I know Bowles was not a Muslim but he lived the last 50 some years of his life in Morocco and the surrounding areas. With that much time around a group of people you get to know something about their attitudes and the way they think. Not to mention he had close Muslim friends that I'm sure tried to explain things from their perspective.
That quote is part of the reason why I think our efforts in the Middle East are destined to fail. We approach the area with the Western mindset that the people want freedom and democracy and I'm not so sure that they do. I'm not saying they want a government that abuses it's people like Saddam's regime did but freedom isn't the most important thing to these people, Islam is. They have the exact opposite belief when it comes to the separation of church and state. They want their government to be centered around their religion and to pass laws and govern according to the teachings of the Koran. Since the time of Muhammad the Muslim people have been ruled by the leaders of their religion. Granted they have disagreed on who that leader should be thus causing the split between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites but I doubt they are going to just throw down those beliefs and adopt our way of government. I think for our efforts to be successful in that area we need to keep that in mind and try to come up with a government that fairly represents the people while still holding true to their religious beliefs, if that's even possible.
Posted by: FCastle25![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.opaquelucidity.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 15, 2006 12:17 AM
You have to agree that FCastle25 has a point here. BTW -Matt thanks for the great podcast. Please remain neutral and don't let your own political beliefs (or mine - or anyone else's for that matter)change the candid way you re-tell some of the greatest historical moments of our time.
Many thanks.
Posted by: Matt at September 7, 2006 06:41 PM