Came across this the other day....
"The persistent quest [to find] a non-violent Islamist lies at the origin of the invention of a 'moderate' Islamism. This attitude can be explained by the fearful refusal to confront Islamism, in its global and bellicose reality. The authorities always start out by fighting while in retreat, trying to disarm Islamism by promoting [its] purportedly 'moderate' spokesmen.
The notion that militancy is fuelled by the poor, indigent, hungry and downtrodden may not have exclusive basis in reality. Listening to the imam across the road from me giving it large in Friday prayers, even without a translation to worshippers so large in number that they congregate in the street outside seems indicative. Recent revelation that the educated, articulate and well-travelled have also put their hands to the plow should really come as no surprise. Al-Qaeda's #2 is medically trained, apparently.
From a spokesman in Algeria, earlier this month."…The Western countries are currently reaping [in these terrorists] what they sowed when they flung their doors open wide to every malevolent fundamentalist and failed in putting in place a mechanism for managing and controlling immigration in an appropriate manner…"
I'd dearly love to defend democracy, glasnost, Tony Benn or whomever. But, as Enoch Powell might have said, the Tiber, it seems, has indeed begun to foam with blood. Reading the final Harry Potter asks a similar question...why were the Death Eaters not properly contained before they were able to gain so much momentum? The parallel between Voldemort and OBL struck me as curious. But.. GWB as the Minister for Magic? Oh, no. Veritaserum. Let the truth be told.
