Senseless acts of violence.

Submitted by Bill Hadney (United States), Mar 25, 2003 at 14:02

Having just finished David Pryce-Jones' excellent book "The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs", I believe I at last have the perspective and context in which to place Akbar's despicable act of violence. If anything is to be learned from the annals of Middle East history, it is the pervasive and accepted presence of personal and managed violence as primary modes of expression and of dissent. Extreme violence underlies the social and political evolution of the region, and it is largely practiced in the name of Islam, in one form or another.

In this case, Islam apparently offered Akbar no personal creed limiting or controlling full expression of his anger and emotions. In fact, it may have promoted such an expression.

We don't know yet.

But until our elected officials understand and come to grips with the potential here, and introduce practical measures, as Daniel Pipes suggests, to safeguard against it, I believe the worst is yet to come.

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