Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Jazz
The much more interesting question, for me, is how he went from "moderate" to "nut case". For the record, I think there's no chance that Alwaki sudden developed a mental illness or that one suddenly revealed itself.
The human condition is that we hate "other". It might as well be tattooed on all of us at birth. We all feel good about hating the Nazis, but they were people too. But they were "bad", so it's all ok. The same with the Belgians in the Congo, the US Army in the Plains, the Soviets in Ukraine, the Vikings raids, the Rape of Manchuria, the reconquest of Spain.... The Nazis just had better PR and a more obvious case of "evil things".
So somehow Americans, in Alwaki's mind, have gone from "tolerable" to "bad". What caused that move?
This isn't madness. This isn't some mental deficiency. This isn't even that he got whacked in the head by a board, Three Stooges-style, and woke up hating Americans. Things have happened. There's a reason for this.
In other words, what have we done to deserve it? And I'll bet that he has some pretty good fucking reasons.
There's no such thing as "good guys and bad guys". I think that it's very interesting how many folks have assumed that Alwaki's gone crazy.
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i dont think he's gone mentally crazy. maybe nutter crazy, but im sure he's got a sane mind. im sure of it.
But you back a dog into a corner and you dont expect it to bite? of course its going to turn on you. Thats not to justify Awlakis call to murder anyone. I just think the leash could have been pulled in a different direction instead of having him go underground under the protection of his strong tribe who have plenty of sway with the yemeni government.
From what i can remember, he came to the attention of authorities when the muslim soldier dude.. (Nedal something, i cant recall his name now) went on a shooting rampage.
I'll say that even i have listened to a few of his sermons over the years. he had a great series on the lives of the biblical prophets about 10 years ago now which were rich in islamic, christian and jewish history. its a shame that his rhetoric has changed since then.
If we're talking rationality here, then thats really a subjective term. What is rational to me may not be rational to Mixedmedia. What concerns me is that as a cleric, he's moved away from his own rationality of using islamic jursipudence to calling for the death of ordinary americans.