This week a joint German-American team arrested three suspected Islamic militants who were planning a terrorist attack on a US facility. Some of us were surprised that two of the three were German nationals. What caused them to embrace an extremist brand of Islam and plan a crazy plot that could have killed many people - including fellow Germans? The anti-German Bush-blog Medienkritik knows what is to blame for their actions: the German Sozialstaat.
The terrorists were supported by the German welfare state - via the German taxpayer. Does this deeply surprise anyone? Some of the 9/11 hijackers also took advantage of free education and other handouts from the German "social" system.
No surprise there. When a several of the Islamic terrorists in the UK turned out to be medical doctors, the right-wing pundits in the US were quick to blame the British system of universal health care. I guess that means that the US - with its 47 million uninsured citizens and growing poverty - is pretty much immune from such "home-grown terrorists".
A much better discussion of the possible attraction of Islamic extremism to German youth can be found in this Tageszeitung article by Eberhard Seidel. Islamic extremism - according to Seidel - is the internationalist flip-side of right-wing (neo-Nazi) extremism. The underlying attraction is the same, but there are noticable class differences: the Islamic variety of extremism appeals to a more affluent/educated class:
"In Germany at present there are two panaceas on offer that promise to beat the system and enhance one's status on offer: right-wing extremism and Islamism. For obvious reasons right-wing extremism, with its nationalist ideological foundations, is unattractive to youths and young adults from immigrant families. Islamism, on the other hand, dispenses with the exclusivity of 'blood' and is open to anyone who voluntarily professes their belief in it - irrespective of national, religious, social or ethnic background. Islamism, as the internationalism of the 21st century, is therefore also attractive to people searching for meaning and action in their lives, who weren't been born into the Islamic tradition."
In other news, more than one million people have been killed by Imperial aggression in Iraq. Israel continues to build a racist separation wall. The doomsday cult of Dominionism has gripped at least third of all US-Americans, making them long for Armageddon and the conversion of the Jews. The rule of law has been abandoned and the former "western democracy" has turned into a genocidal neo-nazi juggernaut.
Posted by: antonymous | September 08, 2007 at 05:42 PM
"The Christian Taliban."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39182
They shall smite the evil social health care, (and that free education stuff too).
Posted by: gizmo | September 08, 2007 at 09:57 PM
"anti-German Bush-blog Medienkritik"
@thanks for calling a spate a spate.
The only question is: Who is more pathetic, the people running the site and their 'supporters' or those
who take them seriously and bother to deal with them . . . ?
It could have been a good website for everyone who's concerned about German-American relations but rather than visiting DMK you can go to little green footballs, michelle malkin and enjoy 'fair and ballanced' Bill O'Reilly. Same spin, same propaganda, same hubris.
Posted by: clive | September 09, 2007 at 03:55 AM