Christopher Hitchens captures the reasons the Islamist extremists hate the West:We know very well what the "grievances" of the jihadists are. The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.
Let us be clear. Al Qaeda did not attack London because of Iraq. The jihadists hate the West because it does not follow the requirements of their radical form of Islam and its very existence threatens the hold of that radical form of Islam over all Muslims.
Even if Britain did not participate in the war in Iraq, it would still have been in the crosshairs of the jihadists. Undoubtedly, France, Germany and other European countries are beginning to recognize this reality. These attacks did not begin with the invasion of Iraq. Jihadists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the USS Cole in 2000 and the American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan as well as the September 11, 2001 attack. All occurred before the US invaded Iraq.
How does George Galloway and his ilk explain these attacks? Do they want the West to require the veiling of women, abandon democracy, end Western music and movies and enact Sharia law? This might meet the requirements of the jihadists to end their attacks on the West.
# posted by Thomas A. Becket : 5:27 PM
