More on the Lessons Yet Learned
Thanks to the very astute comments of Redhunter on my earlier post, Lessons Yet Learned, some additional thoughts and facts are needed.
As Redhunter's comments point out, their are many who do not respond to freedom with the same joy that we would. He notes:
"that the reason why some of the terrorists attacked us is because they were "offended" by our notions of freedom and democracy. Some or many of the terrorists were radicalized after they had arrived in the west."Indeed. The man who many point to as the source for modern Islamo Fascism is not Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab al-Najdi, from whom the Wahabi get their name, but rather Sayyid Qutb.
Qutb, after coming to the United States, was so incensed by our Liberty, or rather the choices we made with such Liberty, that he returned to Egypt and began working solely on his political theory of Islam as not only a religion and way of life for the individual, but rather a system of government. He joined and wrote for the Ikhwan al-Muslimun, or Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which was later outlawed. His works against the government of Gamal Abdul Nasser, and calling for its overthrow and replacement by an Islamic state, in opposition to the secular and Arab nationalist movements preceding it, led to his imprisonment and execution.
This to me is additional proof of the validity of 'Lesson 2: Independence, not Blood or Faith, must lead the way', as it shows that whether it be faith, as was the case of Qutb, or tribal bloodlines, the distance between the values associated with that philosophy and that of Liberty is great and often untenable.
The question of U.S. and the Iraqi Interim Government understanding of this remains, and the quiet time between attacks will only mislead us into believing that those forces arrayed against us have been defeated. Hence, we must not negotiate settlements or attempt to allow political resolution to such attacks as Najaf, Muqtada al-Sadr has not become a believer in the power of the system, but rather has been told to live to fight another day.
Sidenote: You may also find it interesting that the ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) maintains a page on their website which refers to Qutb as one of the Greatest Muslims of the 20th Century.
