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Pakistani attorney and author Rafia Zakaria wrote an op-ed in Al Jazeera America about the Islamic extremists' war on fun, including sports, music, even dining in a fine restaurant. Zakaria points out that this apparent obsession predates the existence of ISIS by several decades (at least); he suspects this is a big reason why the attackers chose Paris, renowned worldwide for its brilliant culture and joie de vivre.
Terrorism’s targeting of the merry is universal and indiscriminate, a division of the world between those who wish to live and laugh and hope and those who kill and destroy. The latter are deadly and relentless, and they have already squeezed out the mirth from too many of the world’s cities, from Karachi, Kabul and Baghdad to Nairobi and Beirut.
Zakaria experienced this aspect of terror firsthand. A high school friend had just passed a big exam, and was out celebrating with his family at a restaurant in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists struck.
Al Jazeera America provides a separate analysis warning that military action alone cannot defeat ISIS (aka ISIL), which of course is not a "nation" in the traditional sense, but more of a guerilla outfit like Al Qaeda, that opportunistically seized a stronghold in chaotic regions of Syria and Iraq. The piece's author, political scientist Rami G. Khouri, recommends that both the West and Muslim nations of the Middle East spend more resources on addressing economic and political problems facing impoverished youths who are potentially attracted by the ISIS' recruiting pitch:
If the underlying threats to ordinary citizens’ lives in autocratic Arab-Islamic societies remain unaddressed — from jobs, water and health insurance, to free elections, a credible justice system and corruption — the flow of recruits to movements like ISIL or something even worse will persist and even accelerate.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday November 16 2015, @12:39PM
Ha! Coming about 400 years late to the party, Cromwell and his puritans waged war on Christmas [historyextra.com] and other [theatredatabase.com] fun [americanantiquarian.org] long ago.
One of their descendants [wikipedia.org] has even been righteous hypocrite and liar in chief [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 16 2015, @04:21PM
For a couple of hundred years, protestants and Catholics fought bloody, long wars not unlike the middle east. After a while the Great Clue Stick of mass death and stagnation finally dawned on them and they made peace and put into place rules of tolerance.
I hope the M.E. reaches the same point sooner rather than later.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @06:27AM
Frankly they had it during the Ottoman era, but then came WW1, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and a epic mess produced by the "victors" carving the corpse up between them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/2989a78a-ee94-385e-808f-c9c7c38d1cb7 [bbc.co.uk]
Here is Curtis again, in written form this time, where part of the article touches on how the UK representatives in port-Ottoman Iraq sidelined the urban progressives and instead put the rural shiekhs on pedestals.
Lets not forget that the colonial system was not really shut down until the early 60s.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday November 16 2015, @05:02PM
A very large percentage of fanaticism seems to be driven by the extreme fear that somebody, somewhere, might be happy.
And no, that's not limited to Muslims or Christians: You'll find this fear among Orthodox Jews, hard-line Soviets, ancient Spartans, Japanese salarymen, and of course rural Kansas. The impulse seems to be, in a nutshell, "My life is miserable, so yours should be too!"
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Funny) by dry on Monday November 16 2015, @10:12PM
There's a story where a Russian peasants cow dies and then he gets a wish. He wishes for his neighbours cow to die.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Tuesday November 17 2015, @11:27AM
how does the story end?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @06:29AM
The age old story that kept the peasants in line was that their life of hardship on earth would be repaid by a eternity of plenty in the afterlife.