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Fri. Dec 14, 2001

The Non-Religious War

The Non-Religious War – You’d think this point would have become moot, but in the aftermath of the past few months, I think we haven’t quite gotten past it. And I think it’s dangerous. ”It” being the continuing conviction of many, on both sides, that this is a Religious War. And although I guess it shouldn’t, it really disturbs me. Perhaps because it makes me start thinking a little like John Ashcroft. Just for a half second, before I return to my senses.

Spurred by talk of the Osama Tape, Jeff Jarvis notes: ”I know that [Andrew] Sullivan is buttressing his own argument that this is a religious war and he’s not wrong about that. But to call what we see in bin Laden ’faith’ gives him misplaced credit and it gives God and Allah both a bad name. Along with ’faith’ of any stripe one has to see some moral structure, some belief in a greater good, some assumption that there is a divine will or plan or set of laws that rule what you do and why you do it. There is none of that here.”

And there’s where I see the contradiction. I think many on both sides agree, especially after yesterday’s tape, Osama bin Laden is the opposite of a Muslim visionary or a man of faith, that he in fact does not represent the teaching and spirit of the Q’uran at all. He represents the perversion of faith, using it as a catalyst for his real goal, personal power and ego gratification. He is the latest in a long line, falling in behind the likes of Jim Jones, and David Koresh.

So, if he’s not about religion (except as a sheep’s cloak over his wolf’s heart), how can this be a Religious War? To my way of thinking, to claim it is gives credit to a blasphemous imposter, and falls into his Primary Trap. He wants (wanted?) this to become a battle between Islam and the West. For it to spread widely as such is (was?) his greatest desire. When you call it a religious war, deep in a cave somewhere, Osama smiles (when warbloggers do it, he probably adds that self-satisfied chuckle we saw on tape).

”Quoting scripture of one flavor or another is not an indication of faith. No, what is clearly genuine about bin Laden is only his hate—his engineered evil—and the religion is merely a thin veil over that.”

Yes! Yes! Yes! So let’s not credit him as a man of faith by putting this war in religious terms. We are fighting ”hate” and ”engineered evil.” Engineered on the backs of those who do have faith.

Do we in the West have reason to be concerned about larger trends in Muslim thought, anti-American trends, the very ones that Osama duct taped to his cause? Perhaps so. Can we blow them up, capture them, or seal them in a cave? No. So that’s not what we’re fighting. We’re fighting terrorists, and as we’ve seen just in the past few days, they come in all ethnicities, all religions.

Can that fight indirectly have an impact on Islamic attitudes towards the West? Yes, as Andrew pointedly notes, ”In fact, bin Laden proves that the best form of persuasion in that part of the world is not rhetorical but military. Pummel them and they will respect you. Talk to them nicely and youll end up like Robert Fisk.”

So let’s keep our focus on terrorism, and resist the concept of the religious war, because that’s Osama’s concept. And you don’t want John Ashcroft on your butt for aiding and abetting the enemy, do you?

Finally, in all the disgust about Osama, there is another insincere imposter who stood out on that tape, and Jeff nails him: ”I haven’t seen the guy’s name in writing yet—sounds like ’Gumby’—but the asskisser on the tape with bin Laden will have to go down in history as the biggest brownnoser in history. What a wipe.”

Yes, I can just see the trend in corporate meetings to come, as the brownnosing underling precedes his presentation to the Big Boss with the immortal line, ”I’m sorry to speak in your presence, but it is just thoughts, just thoughts.”