Sara S
09-11-2008, 07:44 AM
In today's encore excerpt--Abdullah Azzam
recruits teenagers and young men for Al Qaeda's
battles in Afghanistan during the mid-1980s,
taking
full advantage of their vulnerability born of
oppression
and deprivation:
"It was death, not victory in Afghanistan, that
summoned many young Arabs to Peshawar.
Martyrdom was the product that Azzam sold in
books,
tracts, videos and cassette tapes that
circulated in
mosques and Arabic language book-stores. ...
He told
stories of the mujahideen who defeated vast
columns
of Soviet troops virtually single-handedly.
He claimed
that some of the brave warriors had been run
over by
tanks but survived; others were shot, but the
bullets
failed to penetrate. If death came, it was
even more
miraculous. ... Bodies of martyrs uncovered
after a
year in the grave still smelled sweet and
their blood
continued to flow....
"The lure of an illustrious and meaningful
death was
especially powerful in cases where the
pleasures and
rewards of life were crushed by government
oppression and economic deprivation. From
Iraq to
Morocco, Arab governments had stifled freedom
and
signally failed to create wealth at the very
time when
democracy and personal income were sharply
climbing in virtually all other parts of the
globe. Saudi
Arabia, the richest of the lot, was such a
notoriously
unproductive country that the extraordinary
abundance
of petroleum had failed to generate any other
significant source of income; indeed, if one
subtracted
the oil revenue of the Gulf countries, 260
million Arabs
exported less than 5 million Finns.
Radicalism usually
prospers in the gap between rising
expectations and
declining opportunities. This is especially
true where
the population is young, idle, and bored;
where the art
is impoverished; where entertainment--movies,
theater, music--is policed or absent
altogether; and
where young men are set apart from the consoling
and socializing presence of women. Adult
illiteracy
remains the norm in many Arab countries.
Unemployment was among the highest in the
developing world. Anger, resentment and
humiliation
spurred young Arabs to search for dramatic
remedies.
"Martyrdom promised such young men an ideal
alternative to a life that was so sparing in its
rewards. ... And for those young men who came
from
cultures where women are shuttered away and
rendered unattainable for someone without
prospects, martyrdom offered the conjugal
pleasures
of seventy-two virgins ..."
Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower,
Knopf,
2006, pp. 106-107.
recruits teenagers and young men for Al Qaeda's
battles in Afghanistan during the mid-1980s,
taking
full advantage of their vulnerability born of
oppression
and deprivation:
"It was death, not victory in Afghanistan, that
summoned many young Arabs to Peshawar.
Martyrdom was the product that Azzam sold in
books,
tracts, videos and cassette tapes that
circulated in
mosques and Arabic language book-stores. ...
He told
stories of the mujahideen who defeated vast
columns
of Soviet troops virtually single-handedly.
He claimed
that some of the brave warriors had been run
over by
tanks but survived; others were shot, but the
bullets
failed to penetrate. If death came, it was
even more
miraculous. ... Bodies of martyrs uncovered
after a
year in the grave still smelled sweet and
their blood
continued to flow....
"The lure of an illustrious and meaningful
death was
especially powerful in cases where the
pleasures and
rewards of life were crushed by government
oppression and economic deprivation. From
Iraq to
Morocco, Arab governments had stifled freedom
and
signally failed to create wealth at the very
time when
democracy and personal income were sharply
climbing in virtually all other parts of the
globe. Saudi
Arabia, the richest of the lot, was such a
notoriously
unproductive country that the extraordinary
abundance
of petroleum had failed to generate any other
significant source of income; indeed, if one
subtracted
the oil revenue of the Gulf countries, 260
million Arabs
exported less than 5 million Finns.
Radicalism usually
prospers in the gap between rising
expectations and
declining opportunities. This is especially
true where
the population is young, idle, and bored;
where the art
is impoverished; where entertainment--movies,
theater, music--is policed or absent
altogether; and
where young men are set apart from the consoling
and socializing presence of women. Adult
illiteracy
remains the norm in many Arab countries.
Unemployment was among the highest in the
developing world. Anger, resentment and
humiliation
spurred young Arabs to search for dramatic
remedies.
"Martyrdom promised such young men an ideal
alternative to a life that was so sparing in its
rewards. ... And for those young men who came
from
cultures where women are shuttered away and
rendered unattainable for someone without
prospects, martyrdom offered the conjugal
pleasures
of seventy-two virgins ..."
Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower,
Knopf,
2006, pp. 106-107.