I have a very dear, if tragically misguided, liberal friend who seems to love capitalism only in one context: when arguing that we should get Islamofacists to love us because capitalism will ultimately coopt them. What he fails to realize – as do many who advocate tempting militant Islamists with carrots rather than threatening them with sticks – is that modern political Islam precisely is the combination of modern consumerism and technology with ancient and fundamentalist ideology. Athena in Jordan, a security scholar in Amman, posts this revealing anecdote:
These people are of the 19-22 age range and come from affluent families. They drive BMW’s, their parents have advanced degrees from the States or Europe. They dress like Americans, talk like Americans and many want to visit or live in America for at least a while. Many would love to study in America. They speak of the freedom of America. They love to meet Americans and say that they love Americans. And they love Osama bin Ladin…
Then I asked how he felt about the attacks that were planned for Jordan that would’ve killed perhaps 80,000 people. I asked him how it felt to be a target for al-Qaida because he lives in a neighborhood in the rich West Amman that would’ve been under a chemical weapons cloud….
“This is not true, al-Qaida was not behind this attack” was his answer. I didn’t push to ask who actually was, but it probably would’ve been something dealing with the Israelis…
It still is very hard to sit next to someone who thinks OBL is a hero and has really stood up for the Arab world and is forwarding Arab interests against the “global King” George Bush. It’s hard to sit next to people and talk about the latest movies that have come out, our most favorite episode of Seinfield, the latest news about Usher and Beyonce and Jessica Simpson, all the places we’ve traveled to in the world, and how we want to be academics, Drs, lawyers, diplomats and the like….and then hear them praise the antithesis to all these modern things, Osama bin Ladin.
