This is what we need, not the usual approach of using tragic events to justify new surveillance, law enforcement powers, or military action. The only response that could offer a real long term solution is outreach and education, because fundamentalisms only flourishes in an environment of ignorance and poverty.
One of the few downsides of the technological revolution that we live in, is that everyday it lowers the barrier of entry develop nuclear or biological weapons. If we don't do something about extremest, they will be the cause of our civilization's demise. In the past decade, we have spent $3 trillion fighting wars in the Middle East.[1] That money and our presence there hasn't worked, it's only created a new generation that hate Western values.
I just watched on news footage of hangars and barracks being bulldozed in Afghanistan.[2] What I saw was potential schools and homes being bulldozed. Imaging what could have been accomplished after 911 with $3 trillion invested instead in Education, Science, and Technology. Imagine the good over $800 million each day for a decade could do. Let's stop dropping bombs and start teaching. That's the only way we're going to end this vicious cycle before it's too late for all of us.
>"because fundamentalisms only flourishes in an environment of ignorance and poverty."
Do you mean ignorance as in poorly-educated? Nearly all the 19 hijackers of 911 were quite well-educated. Or are you referring to ignorance rooted in a belief in myth and superstition as manifested in religion? How kindly do you think people are going to take to being told, if even implicitly - by "infidels" no less - that they're belief system has rendered them ignorant? For that matter non-muslims playing any role in the arab world is considered an abomination by fundamentalists.
I agree that change needs to happen but am not convinced it can come from the West. It needs to come from within Islam and the Muslim community. They need their own Reformation.
Reformation is unlikely to come from within the Islamic community.
In the clip below, from Norway, English-speaking Muslims ridicule and dismiss the Western concepts of moderate and extremist Islam. Their rationale is that the same beliefs are shared by the majority.
> Reformation is unlikely to come from within the Islamic community.
I wrote a long response to this but I decided to delete it. Basically this is not very accurate, and familiarity with history of the Middle East and North Africa (including ideologies like Arab nationalism and Ba'athism, or figures like Gamal Abdel Naseer and Hafez al Assad) would show that it certainly can come from within the Islamic world-- primarily because the Islamic world are the prime targets and overwhelmingly the majority of the victims of these actions.
> Their rationale is that the same beliefs are shared by the majority.
Their rationale is also that the majority of Muslims are hypocrites and are not "real" Muslims (when compared to those who follow the extremists' perverse Wahabbi fiqh within the Sunni Hanbali maddhab) or else they would agree with them. Unless we haven't noticed, the prime victim of Islamic extremism is other Muslims, and the prime opposition towards Islamic extremism is other Muslims. To go even further, the primary enemy of ISIS is actually Al Qaeda (in the form of Jabhat al Nusra) and vice versa.
When they say there is no moderate or extremist Muslim, it is because the moderate Muslim does not recognize the extremist as a Muslim, and the extremist does not recognize the moderate as a Muslim. Even the Muslim extremists do not recognize other Muslim extremists as Muslim if they do not pledge allegiance.
There is a reason why these extremist folk are called "Takfiris"-- it literally means "those who accuse others of disbelief." Here [1] is a video between the Western-backed terrorists in Syria and ISIS on a two-way radio call. Pay close attention from about 40s, especially when the Western-backed terrorists ask the ISIS fighters why they do not attack Israel
As an anecdote: In Iraq a fatwa was issued by Ayotallah Sistani to refer to ISIS as "Daesh al Murtad" ("ISIS who has left Islam") but it was eventually brought down to "Asa'ib daesh" ("the gangs of ISIS") so as to avoid the "moderates" receiving the takfiri labeling as it is considered inflammatory.
Arguably this is the Islamic reformation happening. People seem to have a very selective view of the Christian reformation that leaves out all the violence and the fact that the iconoclasts won.
The Internet is demanding that a substantial number people in the world, the majority of whom will never receive visas nor set their feet in Europe, to be responsible for an event that happened in Paris.
- I don't agree. It is valid if you are naive and believe US went around the world twice to spread goodwill and western values to those who despised them anyway, by blasting hundrets of thousands of civilians (and few armed guys along) to pieces. But, if you look at those adventures from economical perspective of those who have huge influence in US politics all the way to white house and can profit nicely from any war effort, there are no big mysteries. Or, just "follow the money" works nicely.
- completely agree on that cash spending point. in fact, my personal opinion is that we shouldn't try to reach the stars/other planets until we solve our massive issues here, ie no person should die from hunger, all children should get proper education/health care, minimize polluting/raping our own ecosystem etc. You know, the basics of fabric of any sustainable advanced society that we sometimes claim to be/aspire to be.
- multiculturalism has largely not worked, at least not for europe's immigration. the issue is lack of any proper integration, accepting european values etc. People here are well aware, and incidents like these will play nicely in hands of terrorists. Further polarization of society, meaning more jihad recruits, more attacks and so on. It doesn't matter that maybe 98% of muslims here are nice people that don't cause any issues (apart from that integration, but if I were living in muslim country, I wouldn't accept their values neither). US fares much better in this aspect.
>>my personal opinion is that we shouldn't try to reach the stars/other planets until we solve our massive issues here, ie no person should die from hunger, all children should get proper education/health care, minimize polluting/raping our own ecosystem etc. You know, the basics of fabric of any sustainable advanced society that we sometimes claim to be/aspire to be.
So how do you suggest to achieve that? A person grows up and wants to go and study rocket science, and you come up and go "sorry kid, come back once kids stop starving in Nigeria"? You can't just assume that if we halt progress in one area then magically the production capacities will transfer to other areas. World hunger would not be solved by stopping space exploration, it's a result of many different political problems, it's not a simple issue.
I am not at all talking about stopping all space exploration, banning rocket science or similar nonsense. Only specifically about manned mission to mars and huge amount of cash that will cost it. Be it a noble cause, there are more noble and pressing ones that will have much more positive impact on our society.
And just because something ain't easy it shouldn't be aspired to be done? Or do you really feel internally perfectly OK throwing away stale food knowing there are kids starving out there? (seen those first hand, not in africa but in india, and to say it's a touching and saddening experience is a gross understatement).
Sure, and that's probably why spending on Nasa is a fraction of spending on Education or Healthcare. The only thing you could change right now is stop that spending altogether. As a society we are already spending much more on helping others than we are spending on space exploration - and the idea that we literally shouldn't do X unless Y happens first strikes me as quite radical - if you are qualified engineer you are free to commit your resources to whatever cause you like. If you want to make water purifiers for poor people in Africa - cool. But if you want to build rockets with your knowledge - also cool. What we can do is provide incentives for people to do the first thing not the other, but I wouldn't take anyone's freedom of choice.
>>Or do you really feel internally perfectly OK throwing away stale food knowing there are kids starving out there?
The answer is yes - because I avoid buying too much food and if there is any left that I am not going to use, then it's the only reasonable option(well, I would use it for compost if I had a garden, but I don't). North Koreans are not going to get any more food on the table even if I stop eating altogether. And as a society we are already spending billions sending food aid there - but there is only so much you can do without getting rid of the regime there. Your argument is the same as someone saying to a child "finish your soup, there are kids in India starving" - but apart from making the child feel bad, it's not achieving anything.
This is what we need, not the usual approach of using tragic events to justify new surveillance, law enforcement powers, or military action. The only response that could offer a real long term solution is outreach and education, because fundamentalisms only flourishes in an environment of ignorance and poverty.
One of the few downsides of the technological revolution that we live in, is that everyday it lowers the barrier of entry develop nuclear or biological weapons. If we don't do something about extremest, they will be the cause of our civilization's demise. In the past decade, we have spent $3 trillion fighting wars in the Middle East.[1] That money and our presence there hasn't worked, it's only created a new generation that hate Western values.
I just watched on news footage of hangars and barracks being bulldozed in Afghanistan.[2] What I saw was potential schools and homes being bulldozed. Imaging what could have been accomplished after 911 with $3 trillion invested instead in Education, Science, and Technology. Imagine the good over $800 million each day for a decade could do. Let's stop dropping bombs and start teaching. That's the only way we're going to end this vicious cycle before it's too late for all of us.
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09...
[2] http://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghanistan-war-60-minutes-lara-...