Quote Originally Posted by RoadToad View Post
Very interesting article. I would have liked to read more about what the author thinks are the multiple causes at play, and how he sees them interacting.

If you get lost reading it, I think this segment provides the gist of what he's saying:

"Others may jump to claiming that Islam per se was the cause, which does not make sense because there are over a billion Muslims in the world who neither carry out nor even support terrorism.

We must get beyond inaccurate causal over-simplification and consider the phenomenon of terrorism as a complex interplay of multiple factors."


I've seen the phrase "Radical Islam" thrown around a lot on the board lately, as if there two religions, Islam and Radical Islam. This author would seem to support what I've said all along, that there is no such thing as "Radical Islam," only radical Muslims. Yes, they use their religion to justify their radical views, but the blame for that does not lie with the religion itself.
I think for someone to become radicalized there needs to be a catalyst besides Islam. In most cases, the catalyst is poverty. Think about it. LOTS and LOTS of radicalized Muslims don't have a pot to piss in. They start to form a bond around the only stabilizing factor they know. HATE for the WEST.

Gangland violence in the inner city is very similar.

But poverty isn't always the catalyst. Sometimes simply being a loner and someone who can be indoctrinated is enough. I think the younger brother here simply fell into the indoctrination that his older brother was doing.

Bottom line......it is evil, and EVIL spawns HATE, and Hate spawns violence.........SAD, but that is our world.