Trading with Hizbullah: Israel has had to free a killer feted as a hero in Lebanon, Barry Rubin, NewAgeIsla.com

Islam and the West

Trading with Hizbullah: Israel has had to free a killer feted as a hero in Lebanon

By Barry Rubin

Suddenly, memory transports me to a balcony in Beirut. The year is 1974 and I am looking out over the city next to my professor, the late Hisham Sharabi. With his sad face and sadder voice, Sharabi -- a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause -- told me that the terrorism used against Israel was shameful and some day Arabs should and would speak out against it.

He himself never did so in the 30 years remaining to him. I don't doubt his sincerity, only his priorities and the system imprisoning his spirit though he lived physically outside of it.

But what about those who are free, both inside and outside? Will the media and intellectuals understand not just that "terrorism is bad" as such but comprehend a massive cultural-political system that dare not break from it in a meaningful way, and draw appropriate conclusions?

On the contrary, they -- many don't but too many do -- often extol, sympathise, or apologise for it. I'm reading the great Shai Agnon's novel Shira, set in the 1930s. A Hebrew University professor who fled Germany has an article accepted by a European journal. Despite intense anti-Semitism, often supported by European scholars, Agnon concludes, "Scholarship has its own dominion, which villainous hands fail to rock." Alas, how hollow that rings today,

http://newageislam.com/trading-with-hizbullah--israel-has-had-to-free-a-killer-feted-as-a-hero-in-lebanon/islam-and-the-west/d/190

The Making of Terrorists: Role of indoctrination and ideology, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

The Making of Terrorists: Role of indoctrination and ideology

By Zakeria Shirazi

After a terrorist is caught with arms and explosives, a few questions will naturally press themselves: how, when and from which source these were obtained, which is the transit/conduit, what was the source and nature of financing? What did the militants plan to do before the law of the land got them, where and from whom did they receive the necessary training for making or detonating bombs? The public have been kept in the dark about these matters. And as for the source of finance, almost nothing has ever been disclosed. If cooperation is sought from the public, they should be taken into confidence instead of being fed on periodic, officially-cleared handouts.

And there is the seminal question relating to the terrorists’ indoctrination. If an extremist is ready to immolate himself, it becomes very difficult for the security apparatus to foil him. The question is how he turns into such a single-minded fanatic as to commit chilling inhumanities and that too with no regard for his own safety. The source of the mind-bending indoctrination must be examined – the curriculum, text, tutelage, training, lecture, audio-video, peer-group influence, fatwa which effectively dehumanised him. And these perverse influences are very much present in the environment which shaped him, and continue to shape countless others.

http://newageislam.com/the-making-of-terrorists--role-of-indoctrination-and-ideology/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/100