How To Inoculate Angry Teens Against Islamic Extremism

2 Replies to “How To Inoculate Angry Teens Against Islamic Extremism”

1. An excellent find, and definitely worth listening to. I hope you repeat it a few times to catch a wider audience than just “weekenders”.

   I can actually empathize with the confusion he must have felt, given he was British born and bred, and he would have expected British values to extend to him too. It reminded me of the racism inflicted upon me at school in Perth the 50s and 60s. It’s convenient to forget that Italians and Greeks were vilified in Australia during that era, and even though I was born in WA and couldn’t speak Italian I apparently looked Italian enough to be bullied as a wog with strong racist justification. It was a nasty piece of our history we’d all prefer to pretend didn’t happen. But to deny is to repeat, so during the Vietnam War racism shifted to anyone who looked remotely Chinese, while Mediterranean types like me became more acceptable (I guess there’s just so much energy people can devote to pointless hatred, while always keeping a bit in reserve for Aboriginal people).

   I too was “radicalized” to a degree, not in terms of shooting and bombing (thank goodness such devices were unobtainable or who knows what an immature kid like me might have done) but in terms of distrusting the authorities whom I was being taught to respect but who were doing nothing to protect me*.

   Essentially that is what these current Muslim radicals believe they are doing – protecting themselves. That is how they mentally justify their horrendous acts against innocent people, because they don’t see them as innocent but as threats. Unfortunately deeply religious people get a double-dose when they are marginalized because religion disallows ‘grey areas’. Either you’re with ’em or you’re against ’em. This is true of all religions; President Bush (the younger) used those exact words to justify attacking Iraq again.

   So why is Islam so different to other religions? Well it’s not – it’s just running late. It is in a different stage of evolution to Judaism or Christianity of Hinduism. Islam began about 610 AD and so is running about three hundred years behind Christianity (the powerful Catholic version kicked off by Constantine in about 313) and is following roughly the same formula. Today’s Islam is in the ‘Spanish Inquisition” phase of its development and is trying to stamp out rivals the way Catholicism tried. The problem is this current dangerous phase of Islam has coincided with a world glut of powerful weapons that appeal to our inherent human cowardice of being able to kill at a distance. These are absolutely perfect conditions for the madness to grow and multiply.

   So what is the answer?

   Well, I think a good start would be to widely acknowledge that religion is a form of mental illness. There is plenty of solid evidence for this so I won’t debate it here, but we can debate it elsewhere if you want to start a new blog. And this is not to say all mental illness is necessarily dangerous. Worshiping pop idols is harmless enough, as is falling in love, or believing in ghosts. They are all forms of thought that drive irrational behaviour. But it’s when say, love turns to stalking or abduction that we feel more comfortable calling it ‘mental illness’ in its generally accepted (somewhat vilified) definition.

   Nor does it mean that by accepting religion is a mental illness do we have to abandon the decent ethics and values that religions often claim to have invented. Alain Botton’s ‘Religion for Atheists” discusses this far better than I could.

   Neither would this approach change the world overnight. But then telling people that smoking is bad for them didn’t stop everyone smoking, overnight. But it did change a lot, and a lot is a good start.

   Thanks for putting “How To Inoculate Angry Teens Against Islamic Extremism” on your blog.

   Frank Aquino

   *I still carry a deep suspicion of any organization that seeks more and more power in the name of public safety. Recent events have done nothing to calm that suspicion.

   1. “Well, I think a good start would be to widely acknowledge that religion is a form of mental illness….”

      Frank, I would disagree about the “mental illness” though there is plenty of evidence of irrational behavior that one could argue is a form of madness if not illness. To me the problem is the innate human ability to separate people into “us” and “them”, whether it to be Christian/Jew, Muslim/Christian, Catholic/Protestant, Sunni/Shia, Communist/Capitalist, Serbian/Croat, Aryan/Slav, Han/Zang (Tibetan), Japanese/Han, Scot/English, Republican/Democrat, Chelsea/Arsenal, etc. In fact, biologists like Konrad Lorenz (On Aggression) tell us that humans do not have a monopoly on this. You find the same behavior with packs of wolves or even flocks of doves. They can demonstrate immense kindness and support for members of their identified “tribe/pack/flock” while displaying ruthless aggression towards those identified as “the other side”.

      As a species equipped with a simple “on/off” switch we are ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of a global world. Let alone to possess nuclear weapons and other means of mass destruction.

      Madness could be described as behavior outside the norm…. within a few standard deviations. But if we are all “mad”, that becomes the norm.

      Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion — several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven. ~ Samuel Clemmens

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