Eli Lake in an article makes point that when it comes to isolating Islam from the extremist behavior it tends to generate Bush was just as bad as Obama - but for a practical reason - you couldn't fight the extremists without the help of Muslim states and therefore you had to pretend that the extremism was just an 'aberration'. Obama's motivations are different I would argue since he clearly believes that if the Muslim world is at odds with modernity that's somehow America's fault.
But aside from how practical or not this politically correct 'wordplay' is the onerous fact remains: closed theocratic societies will generate extremist behavior - that's not an anomaly, that's to be expected because by their very nature closed systems must be extreme since they are fixated on dogmatic purity. If we're going to continue to deny this central fact then I don't know how we protect ourselves against the dangers that will necessarily crop up - the extremism closed societies naturally evince can easily metastasize into something quite dangerous if the threat the extremist oppression is intended to defeat or suppress cannot adequately be suppressed. What's the threat aggravating the parochialism of the muslim world? Western freedoms, Western culture - unless you completely shut yourself off from the world it's impossible to stop the impact of Western culture on your closed system - unless of course you destroy the West or at the very least constantly portray it as the inherently evil enemy. Thus the rise of a virulent form of Islamism.
So you see the extremism we're witnessing is simply the natural consequence of a closed system against all odds desperately trying to keep itself closed. And we've seen this before - we saw it with Nazism and Stalinism and Maoism - it mattered not one little bit when countering the threat of communism that most Chinese were not devout Maoists - all that mattered was that Mao was a devout Maoist and his extremist actions were a completely natural consequence of a closed system's absolutist need for control and purity. Thus it is with Islamism. Doesn't matter whether or not most Muslims share in the extremist vision - the young woman wanting to drive a car in Saudi Arabia has very little power - the guy screaming in the madrassa that no way that's gonna happen has much - that's how closed systems work, and that's all that matters.
But aside from how practical or not this politically correct 'wordplay' is the onerous fact remains: closed theocratic societies will generate extremist behavior - that's not an anomaly, that's to be expected because by their very nature closed systems must be extreme since they are fixated on dogmatic purity. If we're going to continue to deny this central fact then I don't know how we protect ourselves against the dangers that will necessarily crop up - the extremism closed societies naturally evince can easily metastasize into something quite dangerous if the threat the extremist oppression is intended to defeat or suppress cannot adequately be suppressed. What's the threat aggravating the parochialism of the muslim world? Western freedoms, Western culture - unless you completely shut yourself off from the world it's impossible to stop the impact of Western culture on your closed system - unless of course you destroy the West or at the very least constantly portray it as the inherently evil enemy. Thus the rise of a virulent form of Islamism.
So you see the extremism we're witnessing is simply the natural consequence of a closed system against all odds desperately trying to keep itself closed. And we've seen this before - we saw it with Nazism and Stalinism and Maoism - it mattered not one little bit when countering the threat of communism that most Chinese were not devout Maoists - all that mattered was that Mao was a devout Maoist and his extremist actions were a completely natural consequence of a closed system's absolutist need for control and purity. Thus it is with Islamism. Doesn't matter whether or not most Muslims share in the extremist vision - the young woman wanting to drive a car in Saudi Arabia has very little power - the guy screaming in the madrassa that no way that's gonna happen has much - that's how closed systems work, and that's all that matters.
