Mick Hartley on the Sir Salman brouhaha:
“At least the latest tantrums from the Muslim world about Salman Rushdie’s knighthood should demonstrate to those who persist in thinking that all the suicide bombings, 9/11, 7/7, Madrid, Bali, are understandable reactions to Western provocation that, really, no, we’re dealing with a violent pathology here which feeds off a childish sense of grievance.”
Why is it so hard for some to think of violence committed in the name of Islam as a pathology, while it’s an automatic conclusion when violence is carried out in the name of a more private or eccentric set of beliefs? Because we give large collective faiths a greater legitimacy than they usually merit. Seung Hui Cho was a psychopath, Jim Jones a madman, but when it comes to suicide bombers we’re supposed to imagine that they’re just carrying out an intelligible political and cultural program through admittedly regrettable and possibly misguided means.
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