Narcissus and Onan in Iraq.

[stilltrucking]

This is from 2003. But I think it is still relevant.


Q. You're a non-believing Muslim but there's a generation of younger Muslims who are very much believers and they are not negative to the concept of the jihad. What gaps does the Islamic fundamentalism fill for them? How do you respond to them?

Ali: Lets be clear. I'm an atheist. There is a big vacuum in the Muslim world. Secular impulses that were very strong and took the form of nationalism, socialism or communism were wiped out after the pre-emptive war waged by Israel (backed by the US) in 1967. In Indonesia which had the largest communist party of the the non-communist world there was a CIA-supported massacre in 1965 when over a million communists were killed. In this vacuum , after the Cold war, Islamists of various hues stepped in. The young are attracted by jihad because they see NO other resistance to the Washington consensus. It is a rejection of neo-liberal consumerism and military expansionism. I respond to them by arguing that the Empire will only be defeated politically, not militarily. And that requires a politico-economic vision that is infinitely superior to what the Empire offers. A return to early Islam or Talibanisation is a grotesque joke.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/wtc/fundame ... battle.htm