Violence

[flexibeast]

The mass media here in Australia - and from what i've seen, in the US as well - would have us believe that the world is currently in the midst of a clash between the values of the Christian world and the values of the Muslim world. And recent research1 suggests that, at least in terms of historical "Christian values"², this may well be correct:

Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria.

Less sarcastically, though, other research indicates that suicide terrorism is usually driven less by religious objectives than by political objectives; but discussing their political objectives would draw attention to the global political objectives of Western countries, and we wouldn't want that, would we? :-P

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1. i must say the Christian Science Monitor consistently has some of the best journalism i've encountered.

2. That is, as implemented by European nations as part of their 'civilising' of the rest of the world.
 

Comments

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

That Muslims would become the new Commies was predicted decades ago, but was hardly reported in the mass media.

[foibey.livejournal.com]

I've always been confused by the attitude towards suicide-bomb "terrorism"*. There's all this perverse 2+2=5 shite with suicide bombers being shameful/honourless/cowardly and somehow some prick with a button marked "Shock and Awe or let's scare us up some ragheads" back in The Pentagon is the paragon of freedom and democracy.

* Scare quotes left in because at least a significant amount of the time the targets are military/police or otherwise infrastructure based.

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, the mass media wouldn't want to give us previews of their future propaganda, eh?

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's doublethink, and it relies on dehumanising the Others by portraying them as always engaging in inhumane behaviour . . . .

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Corse not!