Cult of violent victimhood

Interesting article from the NY Times today...although I think I look at it a bit differently than the writer intended (not that this is an unusual occurrence. Articles are meant to spur thought, not necessarily push a specific agenda - even if there is an agenda present).

This is what I took from the article: there is a cult of violent victimhood within Muslim communities. A sense that everything or anything the 'infidel West' does to, for, or about Muslims is negative and meant to hold them down.

Examples? Invading Afghanistan was bad. SUPPORTING Afghan resistance against the Russians was bad. 'Abandoning Afghanistan' after the Soviet withdrawal was bad. 'Supporting Hussein' in the 80's was bad. Combating Hussein in the 90's and 00's was bad. Supporting the Saudi regime is bad. Pushing for democratic change in the Saudi regime is bad. Of course, Iraqis killed by Saddam are the West's fault. As are Afghan Shia slaughtered by the Taliban. Oppressive regimes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, Jordan, and Iran? Again...no one living in the country is to blame. The fault lies with the corrupt West. And the indoctrination starts young:

Driven to their classes by parents in VW Passats, these children study Arabic and the Qur'an five evenings a week. "We want them to be proud Muslims and proud British citizens," says Ibrahim Mogra, their gentle, engaging teacher, also a committee member of the Muslim Council of Britain.

"This is our country, this is home. There is no reason for them to feel second-class or alien. If you ask them who they are, they would say Muslim and I think that's right. As a person of faith, for me, God comes before everything. But there is no contradiction. I'm Muslim, I'm British, I'm Asian, I'm an imam, I'm a teacher."

After their lessons, young pupils point out double standards in government and media treatment of their faith. Of course the bombs were wrong and destroyed innocent people's lives, but look at what fuelled it: Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine.

"In Afghanistan people die every single day but that's never mentioned," points out Irshad, 14. "Nobody is there to help the people in Palestine." Arshad, also 14, finishes the argument: "It's not a war against terrorism, it's a war against Islam. That's how some people see it."

[...]

Despite his wispy blonde beard, Hussain, 27, still looks better suited to Scott, his former name. "I wouldn't be surprised if the bombs were planted by MI5," he says, a conspiracy theory suggested by more than one young Muslim milling around the mosque.

In other words, it becomes a no-win situation. Because Islam, in general, is down (in comparison to during the gloriously reinterpreted days of the Caliphate), it is inherently the West's fault. And there is no solution the West can offer other than acceptance that the Islamic way is the right way.

So what does this tell us? Where do we go from here?

Tags:

Islamism
Islamic victimhood
Caliphate