Your scenario is interesting, but doesn't address the *statistic*, which deals with United States Muslims, not those in Iraq under circumstances such as you describe.
Further, the poll referred to "defense of Islam", not to notions of revenge against an invading army. You can't take the "Muslim factor" out of this equation, imo.
Well, I was both taking the Muslim factor out of the equation and contemplating the part of the survey answer that said "in exceptional circumstances", or something to that effect. What I described was obviously "an exceptional circumstance", and I think my WAG conclusion (the number would be above 13%) applies to virtually any target group, not just Muslims. I wasn't discussing Iraq, or any actual event, but an "exceptional circumstance" where I think many individuals would resort to suicide bombing.
If there is any validity whatsoever to the numbers/poll under discussion, I would think you'd be very concerned. Personally, I find the notion that 13% of the Muslims in this country believe that suicide bombings can be justified to be very disturbing. Think of what a suicide bombing means.
Well there are millions of Muslims in the US and so far zero suicide bombings outside of 9/11. So reality says the real world "concern" you have about this poll is unfounded. I know what suicide bombing means, and I know that US Muslims don't do it and have never done it here in the US. So.........what's the cause of your concern?
If you read the question, theoretically some US Muslims say it is justified in some exceptional circumstances. I gave you one (which I just made out of the blue), but you seem to think that that's not what the poll answer is about. I'd argue that type of "theoretical example" is exactly what the poll is about. It's not about suicide bombing some guy who gets caught defacing a mosque. If it were, plenty of people would aleady have been suicide bombed for defacing US mosques. They haven't been.
Even what you're saying is disturbing. It boils down to an *eye for an eye.* "They invaded me and my family was killed in collateral damage; so I'm going to strap a grenade onto my belt and kill a bunch of school children on a bus."
Uhmmmmm, don't blame me, that's the way the world works. At least 13% of it.
In your scenario, the guy who would actually strap on a suicide vest to deliberately kill those "4 lovely children"
belongs in the ground. There is something seriously wrong with that way of thinking.
It's called revenge, and that guy didn't invent it.
I'm curious as to why you feel you must find a way to "justify" a practice like suicide bombing. There are some things in the world that can't be justified, even if one can somewhat understand the motivation.
I'm not justifying it (which I presume implies me passing a moral judgment on whether it is right or wrong), I'm just saying that it's a relatively common response in certain exceptional circumstances, and not unique to Muslims. Whether it is justified or not is not the topic. |
