Killing Terrorism

Seen on Facebook:

With guns, you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism.

Malala Yousafzai

 

Wow, that sounds deep.  For those not in the know, Malala is a Nobel Peace Prize winner.  She had been outspoken in favor of education rights in 2008, which she was only 11.  By the time she was 15, she had become famous among Westerners but infamous among Taliban-supporters.  Living in Pakistan made her a target.  She was shot in the face in 2012 but survived to continue to call for education rights.  She is a truly extraordinary person and I wish her well.  However, her claim is demonstrably false.

Khalid Sheik Muhammad - one of the major figures in the 9/11 attack - has a BS in Mechanical Engineering (earned in North Carolina!).  Osama Bin Laden had at least a couple years of college where he studied civil engineering or public administration.  Muhammad Atta - who flew into the twin towers - had a degree in architecture.  Ayman al-Zawahiri - current leader of al-Qaeda - is a surgeon. Omar Abdel Rahman (the blind sheikh who instigated the 1993 bombing of the twin towers) is a Doctor of Theology. Nidal Hasan - the Fort Hood Shooter - has a BS in Biochemistry and an MD.  Syed Farook - the San Bernadino shooter - had a bachelor's degree in environmental health.  His wife, Tashfeen Malik, had a pharmacology degree.  Omar Mateen - the Orlando shooter - had an associates degree in Criminal Justice, of all things.

 

These are not uneducated bumpkins with no better options than to kill themselves and others in the name of Allah.  Each could have had a bright future by Western standards.  Maybe they didn't get the education that Malala thinks would kill terrorism.  The only education that is going to do that is to teach them that Islam is an evil religion.  Indeed, every Islamic terrorist can give a solid argument for their actions by quoting the Koran or the Hadith.  It should be noted that the Koran is the word of Allah while the Hadith is Muhammad's interpretation of the Koran.  Of course, it is utterly unthinkable that one could teach against Islam in Muslim countries.  To do so is to court imprisonment or death.

 

The Religion of Peace website has an instructive graphic: Ramadan Bombathon 2016.  It shows how many people have been killed in the name of religion or by Islamaphobes.  So far, Islam is in the lead with 220 attacks and 1573 deaths.  All other religions combined come in a distant second of 0 attacks and 0 deaths.  Islamophobes also had 0 attacks for 0 deaths.  Huh.

 

All right, so we've tossed education as a way to stop terrorism.  What other alternatives might we have?  Sadly, the only way to stop people willing to detonate themselves is to kill them before they get the chance.  Oh, but that is SO politically incorrect as to be hate speech.  Terrorism must become so counterproductive that the terrorists abandon it.  But it is part of their religion.  That's a really tough nut to crack.  First, much like we did with Communism, we should contain Islam.  Where it spreads, rape, murder, and explosions follow.  Yes, containment.  Conversion.  Oh, that is really, really politically incorrect!  Unlike Fascism, Nazism, Communism, and other evil ideologies, Islam is integrated into a religion.  This makes it a particularly nasty ideology when coming against Western tolerance of religious belief.  Abridge the 1st Amendment freedom of religion or suffer more Fort Hoods, Orlandos, and San Bernardinos?  There are many reasons why the War on Terror has been so hard to win.

 

Of course, my prescriptions are irrelevant.  No Western nation will implement them.  Islam is most likely going to find Russia or China as their main foe.  These countries are not constrained by Western values and will pulverize Muslim countries when given enough cause to do so.  Whether Clinton or Trump wins, the US is going to mostly leave the Middle East to stew, perhaps offering some bombing to satisfy the hawks.

Here is David Wood also blasting the "Education prevents terrorism" myth.  He provides excellent sourcing for why Islam is the cause of terrorism.