Simplistic
Reader comment on item: God and Mammon: Does Poverty Cause Militant Islam?

Submitted by A student (Canada), Mar 19, 2006 at 14:41

Your article presents facts that ring true. I will not doubt them. However, I have to question your interpretation of these facts. "Power" alone is no definite explanation. The quotes you used to support the argument of power are (again, most likely true but) intepreted in a questionable manner. These quotes like "ultimately Islam will become the supreme power.", only display the religious connotation in the issue of terrorism.

The data regarding the origins (and backgrounds) of the Extremists are not relevant to your arguments. These well-educated extremists might not be poor themselves, but see the desparity in their community, and wish to seek justice. You do not have to be an animal to be an animal-rights activist, do you? Neither do you need to be a poor African with AIDS to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa, you can be a rockstar.

Using a quote from your own article, "(Islamic economy as the) most gracious system of solidarity in a soceity. Under such a system, the honorable do not fall. the honest do not perish, the needy do not suffer, the handicapped do no despair, the sick do not die for lack of care, and people do not destroy one another." Religion is seen as a medium for social justice. Going back to the above paragraph, the (zealous, religious) quotes you used then make sense since the spread of Allah would be the spread of social justice.

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