The Amateurishness of Al-Qaeda

It's only been a few days and already we hear more about the gulf oil spill than of Faisal Shahzad’s attempt to inflict mass casualties in Times Square. And if newscasters mention it, they do so mockingly, echoing silly politicians who deemed his attempt at mass murder as "amateurish," simply because it did not succeed. I, like many others, think this is a grave mistake. We mock instead of taking time to examine why not only poor, uneducated, cave-dwelling Muslim youth, but also wealthy, well-educated, "Westernized" Muslim men who could be productive members of any society, choose to foresake their lives and commit, or attempt to commit, the murder of Americans.

To attempt to prevent further Times Square scenarios, we have to understand why their Islamic identity trumps all esle and do everything we can to change the mentality. And as Steyn suggests, the idea that their anger is due in any part to American Islamophobia is laughable since we have done nothing to curtail Muslim immigration and as he points out, "America is so un-Islamophobic that at Ground Zero they’re building a 13-story mosque — on the site of an old Burlington Coat Factory damaged by airplane debris that Tuesday morning. So, in the ruins of a building reduced to rubble in the name of Islam, a temple to Islam will arise." Pretty ironic and un-Islamophobic.

Speaking more specifically, instead of demonizing Shahzad, the media built in a reason for his anger - he was behind on his mortgage payments, just like millions of Americans. As Steyn says, "one way of falling behind with your house payments is to take half a year off to go to Pakistan and train in a terrorist camp. Perhaps Congress could pass some sort of jihadist housing credit?" I wish they would stop. It is nothing we have "done," to Shahzad, but hopefully it's a mentality that we can prevent from taking over the minds of the next Muslim generation.

I can never convey Steyn's articles with the honesty, grit and biting humor they deserve, so click on the article title link and read this one. It's one of my favorites.