"hundreds of millions" (and) on Sudden Jihad Syndrome

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), Dec 28, 2009 at 18:33

Just possibly, if hundreds of millions of passengers are subjected to extra cost, delay, and further loss of privacy, there will be a long overdue backlash, and the Burden of Proof that airline passengers are not terrorists will be removed from everyone on the planet who flies and placed on that portion of the World's population from which all terrorists have come - on Muslims.

While this would be unfair to the great majority of Muslims, it would be markedly less unfair than placing that burden on the overwhelming majority of passengers worldwide who are not Muslims, and especially on US passengers.

It is outrageous that the terrorists in general and the Christmas Day terrorist have achieved a great victory in subjecting the rest of the world to increased inconvenience because of his act. By refusing to focus on the only reasonable target population as possible agents of terrorism, all the rest of us, and our governments, look like timid wimps. This is a notable victory for the terrorists.

Also, since it can be argued that Islam, its leaders and spokesmen and most ordinary believers are not nearly ashamed enough at the action taken in the name of their religion against non-Muslims - just as Muslims worldwide are not nearly angry or ashamed enough at the carnage of Muslims terrorists killing ordinary Muslims daily in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, with terrorists in Yemen trying to 'catch up' with them - this is another reason to single out Islam and Muslims generally whenever there is a need for increased vigilance against Islam's terrorists.

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With regard to so-called "Sudden Jihad Syndrome", I suggest that a major reason for this unsettling phenomenon is that the teachings of Islam from the Koran (which I am currently reading) provide a perfect union of Totalitarianism and Egalitarianism.

On the one hand, absolutist beliefs about 'what Allah commands', especially obedience to him personally, is relentlessly inculcated throughout the Koran.

On the other hand, the Koran frequently tells believers that no one need interpret Allah's commands - that all one needs to know is there for each believer to see for himself. Although 'intermediaries' of Mullahs and Imams have emerged, there is no necessity or call for them in the Koran, let alone any overriding Pope who could be held responsible for calls for universal and indiscriminate carnage, mayhem, and mass murder. Hence any bin laden can come along and issue his genocidal 'fatwas' as readily and legitimately as any aged, revered, and relatively peaceful Ayatollah or, as far as I can tell, any Caliph (it doesn't seem a great surprise that office, which didn't have any Koranic legitimacy, lapsed)

What could possibly be a better, or more frightful and reckless recipe for 'sudden' or 'spontaneous' jihad behavior? As soon as we grasp this fateful union of Totalitarian thought with the praise of Egalitarianism among believers, there should be little mystery at the eruption of Nidal Hasans and Umar Abdulmuttalubs. With all that is inflammatory in the Koran, the wonder is that there are not even more of them. Ron Thompson

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