re: "Poverty causes jihad, except when it doesn't: 60% of jihad suspects in Britain are from comfortable, middle-class backgrounds"

Marisol at Jihad Watch ("dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology plays in the modern world, and to correcting popular misconceptions about the role of jihad and religion in modern-day conflicts") questioned an unquestioned article of faith.

Money quote(s):

"It is a politically correct article of faith that Islamic supremicism and violent jihad must stem from something other than Islamic texts, teachings, and traditions, and poverty and lack of education are popular diversons." (Emphasis in original text. - CAA)

&

"What remains unanswered amid those conjectures is why the response to those difficulties in life, including bereavement and loneliness, leads so often to violent "radicalization" for Muslims in Britain, as opposed to, say, members of the Anglican Communion from far-flung corners of the world."

It's the operating system, the worldview, the "reality tunnel" which a thorough steeping in Islamic texts, teachings, and traditions (such as one experiences growing up in a sharia and jihad-promoting environment) imprints on a young, impressionable mind.

(So no matter how educated, no matter how "modern," when a trauma or setback occurs, the default position is to blame, and punish, the infidel.)

10/17

re: "Burning Food"

Dr. Jerry Pournelle at Chaos Manor ("The Original Blog *") examines an absurdity of our time.

Money quote(s):

" “We have to move away from the thinking that producing an energy
crop doesn’t compete with food. It almost inevitably does.” "

"It is important to understand that this is true. Famine threatens the Arab world as food prices rise. The Chinese are now wealthy enough to outbid most of the world for wheat, which is literally the staff of life for much of the Near East; and the Chinese people are getting used to having a variety of foods. You will note there are no riots in China. The Party system is pretty effective there, and the fires of freedom burn strongest among persecuted minorities who are pretty well doomed. I don't claim to be an expert on the Chinese Party System of government, but it appears to have become quite effective, even in this era of near-universal communications. Arthur Koestler told us that a sufficient condition for the end of totalitarian government was the free exchange of ideas, and he may well have been right: there are few totalitarian systems now. That does not mean the end of tyranny; it does mean the end of systems that insist you believe in what they want you to believe.

Even in the 1980's there were few true Communists in the USSR, even though everyone had to pretend to believe in it. It was the official doctrine, and Suslov, "the last Communist", had been able to use the official doctrine to bring about regime change. The USSR could not withstand the pressures put on the system, and the free exchange of ideas within the system undermined the basis of legitimacy of the regime. There is no such pretense of the truth of Communism in China.

The question in North Africa and the Middle East is just what is the basis of legitimacy for government? It is different in different places.

But the threat of famine menaces them all. Some are rich enough to outbid China for food. Some will be able to substitute corn -- maize, mealies, polenta -- provided that is available; but the more corn we turn into alcohol to burn as fuel the higher its price will go. I do not see that this is well understood by the policy wonks in Washington." (Bold type added for emphasis. - CAA.)

Let me say what Dr. Pournelle leaves unsaid.

As Americans subsidize the use of ethanol, this artificially raises the price of corn, which is used to make ethanol. As the price of corn rises, more of our agricultural capacity is used, or diverted, to grow corn and so less of our agriculturally productive land is used to produce other foodstuffs.

As the burning of food causes food prices to rise internationally (as they're already doing), China has enough of our monetary green stuff to continue to buy whatever they need on the world market. This is going to price corn and other grains out of the reach of poorer countries leading, in the medium term, to food riots, improverishment, revolutions, famine, and death.

re: "Criminal ideologies"

Col. B. Bunny at Eternity Road ("Freedom Commandos -- and there is no finer species") discussed some of America's existential threats.

Money quote(s):

"We didn’t ban the Communist party, but we should have. Freedom of Religion is absolute, but it does exist on the assumption that the religion in question is not a criminal ideology dedicated to the destruction of the United States. And that is exactly what Islam, like Nazism or Communism is.

Freedom of Religion was meant to protect religious freedom, not protect religious terrorism."

"The solicitude of the Soviet Union for greater voter registration and equality of educational opportunity here apparently motivated it to expend large sums of money inside our borders. To downplay their altruism, those crazy guys used Armand “the Bag Man” Hammer to transfer those sums secretly to the Communist Party of the US.A. (Note that this is a fact one mentioned publicly at great personal peril when Mr. Hammer was still alive.) Too, that they were a bunch of murderous thugs hostile to all that America stands for was something that they thought Americans in their parochial view of things would not appreciate."

"The idea that domestic communists weren’t committed to the overthrow of the U.S. is ridiculous now and was then. To call yourself a communist at any time is to associate yourself with an ideology of dictatorship, subjugation, summary execution, and judicial murder—the reality of every communist regime that ever was. No amount of naivete or willful blindness can excuse that association. To pretend that communism was something benign and “progressive” was an exercise in protective coloration."

&

"Think death for apostasy, shariah supplanting the Constitution, rule by ignorant priests, male supremacy, subjugation of women, implacable hostility to rational thought, war against and subjugation of infidels everywhere, destruction of Christian churches and the Christian religion itself, and execution of infidels unwilling to live as dhimmis in their own land, just to name a few things off the top of my head.

So, yes. Criminal ideologies.

Best obliterated, expelled, or quarantined."