Lets accept we are fighting with irrationality…

In the latest edition of Newsweek (Nov 6, “Goading the Enemy“), Martin Amis shares his thoughts on “Islamism”, terrorism and the challenge of combating irrationaility with reason and logic.�

In an�engaging interview, Martin speakes about how the West is finding it hard to accept that “we have a fight with irrationality on our hands”…and how people are unwilling to “make that leap because it feels racist to them”

Some excerpts:

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“In the story you describe jihad as the most charismatic idea of Atta’s generation. Do you really believe this?”
It’s self-evidently true. You’re always onto a winner if you can persuade people they can be righteous and violent at the same time. Nothing beats that. Officially sanctioned violence is unimprovable. And with this paradise which they’ve stirred into the mix�whereby with an act of mass murder, you gain the keys�you’ve got a very attractive idea. Also, it gives the “nobody” a chance to play a decisive role in world history, and there are lots of people who are going to be drooling at the thought of that.

So you think that’s what motivates terrorists?
I’m sure. I say in the story [that Atta] was in it for the killing, and I think that’s another underestimated consideration: killing people is obviously terrific fun. It’s a crude expression of power to kill people, and it’s arousing.

…You’ve written that Western ideology is to blame for weakening the West in the war on terror. How?
Because moral relativism is so far advanced that we don’t believe we can be right about anything. It just hasn’t been accepted in the consciousness of the West that we have a fight with irrationality on our hands. Everyone’s casting about, saying, “Why are they doing this?” And gooey-eyed newscasters on CNN say, “Why? Why this anger?” Paul Berman, the author of “Terror and Liberalism,” calls this tendency “rationalist na�vet�.” [Terrorists] rejected reason. This is what Hitler did, and it’s what Lenin did. They want to believe anything is possible, and they’re not constrained by the laws of logic…

…But the West goes on…they’re also attributing reason to the enemy, saying, “What terrible historic wrongs have we committed to bring this down on ourselves?” And they haven’t made the leap to seeing that it isn’t a matter of reason…Their (jihadists’) war is against God’s enemies and it’s meant to last for eternity, and how rational an undertaking is that? Yet people won’t make that leap because it feels racist to them.

Where do you draw the line between Islam and Islamism?
Violence. Any violence against civilians is absolutely intolerable. [And] there is a huge moral difference between trying to kill civilians and trying not to kill civilians. When an American soldier kills an Iraqi civilian on purpose, he faces the death penalty. There’s no equivalent mechanism among the enemy. [They have] celebrations throughout the land when a good number of civilians have been killed.

� 2006 Newsweek, Inc and MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15461620/site/newsweek/
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Image courtesy: Wikipedia