Yeah, and Goebbels was the "spiritual leader" of the Nazis
I am truly sick and tired of this business of calling terrorist cheerleaders "spiritual leaders."
In some ways it's worse than the "militant" thing; at least terrorists are militant. But how are people such as Abu Bakar Bashir, a cleric who most agree is the one who inspires and guides the murderers of Jemaah Islamiyah "spiritual" (unless, of course, the spirit of evil and hatred counts)?
Is it because he hides behind the role of cleric? Well, the mere title "cleric" does not a spiritual leader make. It's a perversion of the word and the concept "spiritual" to use it to refer to people like Bashir--or to that other well-known spiritual leader, the late Sheikh Ahmad Yassin (see this).
And why, by the way, are these guys so often frail and elderly? Here is the wispy and oh-so-spiritual Bashir in 2002 on the subject of the first Bali bombings:
Asked if there was anything he wanted to say to families who lost relatives in the bomb blast, he said: "My message to the families is please convert to Islam as soon as possible."
Mr Bashir offered no sympathy for those who died; just his belief that by converting to Islam, the survivors could ensure they would avoid the fate of those non-Muslims who died and went to hell.
Sitting cross-legged on the carpet in a run-down house that serves as headquarters for the Indonesia Mujahideen Council, an umbrella group for a cluster of radical Muslim groups, the gently spoken cleric also had a more ominous message he wanted conveyed to Australians.
"The second message is for Australia because you suffered the most: please advise your government not to follow the US policy because it will bring tragedy for your country"...
I think the bomb was done by foreign intelligence, especially US intelligence. The indications are Americans and Jews did it to justify the claims that have been made so far that Indonesia is a terrorist haven. What they mean by terrorists is Muslims. So to prove their theory they created the incident in Bali.
Spiritual as all get-out.
posted by neo-neocon @ 1:49 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Sick and tired as well.
Brad: can't we all just get along :-)?
Happy Rosh Hashanah, as well.
AVI up there has a good point about spiritualism. Being a Christian in the west, when I hear of a spiritual leader, my pastor comes to mind first, or maybe a rabbi or priest; basically any figure that has a positive morality attached to it. But that's just conditioning. New Age spiritual leaders are horribly moral-neutral (when their wordlview is distilled, that is), and as we see in numerous fatwahs, they can be horribly amoral as well.
There is no satisfying such folks, but I needed to make my feelings known. I recently came across a Sociologist, highly educated, who believes that in Viet Nam, tens of thousands of Vietnamese had their throats slit by US soliders. The only saving grace of such idiocy is that it serves to keep people away from that lunatic fringe. I'm not putting Troutsky in that category - he is in the camp of folks who have not been able to come to grips with their gut-wrenching fear of jihadists. Their angst and anger is directed away from the jihadis because the basis of their fear is the fact that they must believe that all human beings are subject to the laws of reason and rationality. Fault lies with others then when jihadis don't act with reason and rationality. This has been addressed here before, but this deep fear is in itself a threat and danger.
Post a Comment
<< Home