Tyranny's the more precise root cause, per Bush.
It's a shame that we have lost our understanding of what it means for religion to be central in your life. Even the devout in our culture have become too secularized.
I got a sense of it by attending Catholic school and being close to nuns and priests, I get a sense of it now by reading very old books, but also by reading the writings of Islamic fundamentalists.
They're in an intolerable situation. Their religion tells them certain things, and the culture around them tells them certain other things, and the two are impossible to reconcile.
Some reconcile by rejecting their religion, some reconcile by rejecting the culture that conflicts with their religion.
We find it almost impossible to grasp people who reject "live and let live" as pernicious and evil. Yet, we don't have to go very far back in history to at least read about people who honestly believed that it was better to kill a heretic than let him lead the innocent down the road to perdition, eternal damnation.
We intend to destroy their culture. And we think we are doing them a favor. And they don't agree.
It's sort of like (if I may grasp at a metaphor) trying to turn nomadic Native Americans into good European style farmers. This could only be done by destroying their culture. It's no accident that the nomads are gone, while the Native Americans who were farmers by culture (e.g., Hopi, Navaho) have survived.
The Islamists hate the Saudis, not because the Saudis are too oppressive, but because they are too venal, using their monopoly on Mecca as a way of lining their own pockets and pushing people around. And they also hate the Saudis for being too worldly.
I think what Bush is trying to get at is that we would be better off if we got to the young Muslims and secularized them before the Islamists could turn them into Islamists. But of course he can't say that.
Is being secular, worldly, and tolerant of heresy and sin really the apotheosis of mankind? Maybe so. But we tolerate an awful lot of vice. |
