Possibly Some Good News on the War on Terror

If we haven’t already learned the lesson, Americans will soon come to realize that most Muslim countries, from Indonesia to Egypt to Iraq, will seemingly always experience some level of violence that is related only to their culture and to their way of settling religious differences. What this means for us in Iraq and Afghanistan is not to expect an environment where there are no bombings or mass killings; the best we can hope for is to reduce the violence to a low enough level that the population feels safe and can go about their business

Perhaps I’m looking too hard for some good news on the state of our battle with Islamic terrorism, but two reports came out this week that look like good news to me. The first report concerns some signs that Iraqi youth is turning off to the Muslim religion entirely. This is a religion that in many areas of the Muslim world teaches that Jews are pigs, and that persons who leave the Muslim religion should be killed. If enough Iraqi youth start believing that their mullahs are deceiving them, this brightens prospects for them and for all the rest of us.

The other report concerns Islamic terrorist activities in China, and the reaction of the Chinese government. Although political correctness must run rife in China, the Chinese don’t fool around with terrorists of any persuasion and would be welcome allies in the fight against worldwide Islamic fundamentalism. General Pershing would be proud. Rumor has it that he dealt very harshly with Islamists in the Philippines back in the 1930’s.

Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics
By SABRINA TAVERNISE, March 4, 2008 New York Times (Excerpt)

BAGHDAD — “After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”

The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology.

While religious extremists are admired by a number of young people in other parts of the Arab world, Iraq offers a test case of what could happen when extremist theories are applied. Fingers caught in the act of smoking were broken. Long hair was cut and force-fed to its wearer. In that laboratory, disillusionment with Islamic leaders took hold.

It is far from clear whether the shift means a wholesale turn away from religion. A tremendous piety still predominates in the private lives of young Iraqis, and religious leaders, despite the increased skepticism, still wield tremendous power. Measuring religious adherence, furthermore, is a tricky business in Iraq, where access to cities and towns far from Baghdad is limited.

But a shift seems to be registering, at least anecdotally, in the choices some young Iraqis are making.

Professors reported difficulty in recruiting graduate students for religion classes. Attendance at weekly prayers appears to be down, even in areas where the violence has largely subsided, according to worshipers and imams in Baghdad and Falluja. In two visits to the weekly prayer session in Baghdad of the followers of the militant Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr this fall, vastly smaller crowds attended than had in 2004 or 2005.

Such patterns, if lasting, could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq. In a nod to those changing tastes, political parties are dropping overt references to religion.” New York Times (no less)

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China thwarts attack on Olympics
Sun Mar 9, 2008 Yahoo News (Excerpt)

Suspected "terrorists" killed in a raid in northwest China's Muslim-dominated Xinjiang region earlier this year had been planning an attack on the Olympics, a top official said Sunday.

In separate comments, another high-level official from the same region said authorities had Friday foiled an attempted "terrorist attack" on a passenger jet flying from the regional capital Urumqi to Beijing.

They were speaking on the sidelines of the current national parliamentary session at a briefing reported by the state news agency Xinhua.

Two militants were killed and 15 arrested in the January 27 raid in Urumqi, capital of the vast region bordering several Central Asian republics, according to the official Chinese account.

China also says five police officers were wounded in the raid when three homemade grenades were thrown at them.

"Obviously, the gang had planned an attack targeting the Olympics," added Wang Lequan, Xinjiang's Communist Party chief, linking the raid for the first time to the August 8-24 Games being held in Beijing.

China's police chief had warned last year that terrorism posed the biggest threat to the Beijing Olympics but this is believed to be the first time the authorities have reported a specific threat against the Games.