GailRana wrote...
blarg, i suck at debating and usually stay out if it for that reason, so feel free to rip this post apart if you wish.
No need. I figure the best I can do to help in this case is simply explain - in as basic and general a way I can given the thread and forum we're in - the nature of al-Qaeda's goals and why the comparisons do work, at least when they're applied thoughtfully.
Note: This is going to be mostly off-topic to the extent that it discusses the details of the comparison and not exactly Anders himself.
Anyway, I believe you've simply fundamentally misunderstood what al-Qaeda - though it's better to say Islamic pan-nationalism (Qutbism) at large - is really about. Essentially, they believe the world has become berift of morality and left the grace of God, and that includes other Muslims, but the main antagonists - to them - are the West and socioeconomic imperialism. There's more detail in the links below. That their cause isn't sympathic to us - or indeed most people - doesn't really change that.
The reason the comparison works better than many would think is they associate al-Qaeda and the ideological basis behind it with Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. How many people here, or in the West, have even heard of Sayyid Qutb? He's the man who established a lot of the philosophies on which groups are based, and he started out by writing manifestos, and limiting violence to a targeted attempt at overthrowing the government of Egypt via membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, for which he was eventually tried and executed. His ideas spread to what would become al-Qaeda through their current leader and former second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri.
That we could read Qutb's "Milestones" and disagree with all of it really doesn't change the fact that for me, I see a lot of similarities between guys like him and Anders, the difference of course being the nature of the injustices both saw, and the ideal world they both imagine. The way they both went about it is the key. Both Qutb and Anders essentially endorsed the idea of putting to use tools that had previously been justified - ideologically and even theologically - for self defense, jihad and magic respectively, as offensive weapons to bring about radical change.
The idea that Anders' actions/ideological position could eventually escalate into something even more violent and extreme in the future, like Qutb leading to people like bin Laden, isn't out of the realm of possibility. It depends if the writers want to go there, but it would be one of many reasonable places to take it.
Most of what I know of this subject comes from two books I highly recommend: "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright, and "How To Win A Cosmic War" by Reza Aslan. Also one documentary, "The Power of Nightmares" by Adam Curtis.
Modifié par Upsettingshorts, 05 mai 2011 - 02:56 .
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