THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 63, May 5, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO BLOW UP TIMES SQUARE?
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
WHAT DRIVES ISLAMIC TERRORIST ACTIVITY, INSANITY OR IDEOLOGICAL PASSION? ACCURATE ANALYSIS OF ACTS
OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM MUST BEGIN WITH THE PRESUMPTION OF JIHADI INTENT ON THE PART OF THE PERPETRATORS,
NOT MENTAL OR EMOTIONAL INCAPACITY AS THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF SUCH BEHAVIOR. SPREADING ISLAM &
APPLYING ISLAMIC LAW ARE THE GOALS OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM. COURAGE TO NAME THE ENEMY IS ESSENTIAL
TO THE WEST'S WINNING THE GLOBAL WAR BEING WAGED AGAINST IT BY THE INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIST MOVEMENT.
FULL STORY:
When news comes of Muslims engaging in violence, the triad of politicians, law enforcement, and media invariably
presumes that the perpetrator suffers from some mental or emotional incapacity.
Instead, I argue, they should begin with a presumption of jihadi intent. That is, the default expectation should be
ideological passion, not insanity. Spreading Islam and applying Islamic law are the goals. Of course, some crazy
Muslims exist and they do engage in violence, but they constitute a microscopic percentage of the 15,247 Muslim
terrorist incidents since 9/11, as counted by www.thereligionofpeace.com.
The failed effort to blow up an SUV in New York's Times Square prompted speculation about the would-be bomber's
motives even before the identity of Faisal Shahzad, an immigrant from Pakistan, had been made public. The
Nation's Robert Dreyfuss discounted the possibility of a jihadi from the Pakistan-based Taliban, "it seems far
more likely to me [he] was either a lone nut job or a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party,
anti-government Far Right."
Then, just hours after Shahzad had been arrested, authorities rushed to assure the public his action had nothing to
do with Islam. Examples from May 4, 2010:
The establishment agrees: Islam played no role in Faisal
Shahzad's attempted terrorism.
Mike Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City: the bomb
could have been placed by "somebody with a political
agenda who doesn't like the health care bill or
something. It could be anything."
Mahkdoom Qureshi, Pakistan's Foreign Minister: "This
is a blow back [for U.S. military activities in Pakistan].
This is a reaction. This is retaliation. And you could
expect that. Let's not be naive. They're not going to
sort of sit and welcome you eliminate them. They're
going to fight back."
Nadeem Haider Kiani, spokesman for the Pakistani
Embassy in Washington, D.C.: it's too soon to tell
exactly what motivated the bomber but early
indications suggest he is "a disturbed individual."
Cable News Network: "It can be confirmed that
his house had been foreclosed in recent years. I mean,
one would have to imagine that brought a lot of
pressure and a lot of heartache on that family."
CBS News: "It isn't clear if more suspects are
at large OR what the motive could be."
The Washington Post: Under the title, "The
economic crisis meets terrorism," Ezra Klein notes
that Shahzad's house was foreclosed and comments:
"This guy is like string theory for the media: He
brings together the seemingly incompatible stories
that drove the past decade. That said, you, of
course, don't want to speculate on why someone
'really' did something. The hearts of men are opaque,
and motives are complex."
And here's a collection from today's papers
Law enforcement (as reported by NY1):
"Investigators say they still have no motive for
Shahzad's actions." (May 5, 2010)
Kifyat Ali, a relative of Shahzad's: "We are shocked.
He had no connection with any political party or
jihadi group." (May 5, 2010)
Associated Press headline: "NY car bomb
suspect cooperates, but motive mystery." (May 5,
2010)
Associated Press story: "Federal officials
aren't talking about a motive in the arrest of a
naturalized U.S. citizen charged with attempting to
set off a bomb in New York's Times Square." (May
5, 2010)
New York Post "exclusive": Shahzad "said
he was driven to evil by the slew of deaths among
leaders of the terror group, law-enforcement sources
revealed yesterday. Sources said he was an
eyewitness to the onslaught throughout the eight
months he spent in Pakistan beginning last
Summer." (May 5, 2010)
USA Today headline: "Motive of NYC car bomb
suspect remains a mystery." (May 5, 2010)
The Guardian headline: "Times Square bomb:
Pakistanis puzzled by bomber's motives." (May 5,
2010)
COMMENTS:
(1) Some of these interpretations say the motives are mysterious, some of them speculate about one thing or another –
but all assiduously avoid the elephant in the room.
(2) You can't win a war, if you don't have the courage to name the enemy.
(3) Naming the enemy means changing some of the more pleasant aspects of Western life, and so is tough to do.
(4) I expect that naming the enemy will occur only after a cataclysm ends our patience with minced words.
© Daniel Pipes 2010
Originally Published in National Review Online, May 5, 2010
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, May 5, 2010
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/8336/why-blow-up-times-square
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Espionage -- Foreign Intelligence & Enemy Espionage
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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