by tubeswell » Thu May 05, 2011 6:45 pm
Subjecting OBL to the western trial system probably would've just have been another western indignity to hard-line radical jihadist muslims.
Whereas, according to Muhammad, the law of retaliation or lex talionis (best known from the formulation "an eye for an eye" in the Torah) was a bonafide form of restorative sanction. My guess is most (if not all) of the al Qaeda mob are expecting something like that to happen to them one day, and that sets in their minds, a further justification for pursuing their jihad. Why else would OBL (and all the others) have gone into hiding (in wherever)? If they knew they were innocent and were prepared to stand trial (and had the courage of their convictions), they may've just waited to be arrested and put their faith in the (western) justice system.
Now I am pretty much a shameless godless infidel, but I do understand something of the role that culture plays in driving human agendas (one of my degrees is BA in sociology and anthropology - only because Auckland University didn't have a social science faculty when I did social science there, so the social sciences were taught in the Arts faculty, which is why that university has a more theoretical/academic tradition in social science - anyway I digress)
So as I was about to say, culture drives religion (not the other way around). Repeated generations of humans living (somehow surviving) in arid harsh environments for 1,000s of years makes for equally arid harsh cultures whose systems of beliefs are underlined with simple black-and-white, or cut-and-dried philosopies that reflect the environment they have adapted to. If you or I lived in this sort of (semi arid desert) environment for long enough, we may probably come to appreciate the values placed on conserving resources and taking pleasure in the simplest of things (maybe). I think one of the reasons that hard-line islamist militant jihadists resent western culture, is because they see it as extravagant and wasteful and indulgent and it threatens their sense of identity - who they are.
I have come to the conclusion over the years that human beings are hard-wired to need to belong to some kind of group or other, because that is a trait of our species. (You see evidence of the need of people to coalesce into identifiable communities of commonality across the globe - e.g.: where a group of people speak the same language and live in the same area and believe the same kinds of things and (more importantly) depend on each other for survival in that manner, then they come to identify themselves as from that group). The system of beliefs (including religious doctrines) are a part of the rubic of each respective group's culture and traditions. Where the group's beliefs (and culture - and hence the group identity itself) are threatened, then the group may be likely to be pre-disposed to take action, in some way or other, in order to resolve that threat.
Add to this the increasing smallness of our world, intensification of natural resource use and competition for resources, and exposure to other groups and beliefs which may become a threat if competing for the same resources, then that is pretty much a recipe for conflict.
In a conflict for resources, either one or the other group eventually prevails, or the groups reach some sort of mutual accord.
So will responding to OBL in a fashion after lex talionis, endear western political leaders to islam? That remains to be seen.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
If you are seeing an apparent paradox, that means you are missing something.
And don't call me Jesus :wink:
