A True Defintion of ‘Cultural Suicide’

During this morning’s commute, conservative talk show host Greg Knapp was discussing radical Islam following the State Department’s latest declaration that the War on Terror has come to a close. He questioned the wisdom in ending the War on Terror in light of such groups as the Muslim Brotherhood gaining political traction in Egypt.

One of Knapp’s points was that, given the sentiments of certain Muslims the US should continue fighting terrorism. The host then went on to list some poll results, which showed that 26 percent of American Muslims, and half of Muslims worldwide, supported suicide attacks. A clip of Rep. Allen West was played, during which the congressman suggested that appeasement of Muslims would lead to “cultural suicide,” which Knapp agreed with.

Of course context is everything, and the polling of Muslims shouldn’t be isolated from the polling of other Americans. For instance, 60% of Americans were in favor of the Iraq war. After it started, 75% of Americans approved of how President Bush “handl[ed] the situation in Iraq,” and 70% thought the costs outweighed the benefits. So it’s not as if Muslims are the only group which advocates death and destruction.

The most important detail left out of Knapp’s analysis is why Muslims might support suicide bombing. This is a question few ever consider, and even fewer look to answer, but as I mentioned, it’s the most important one. Why would someone deliberately use suicide as a means of fighting?

Most chalk it up to Muslims being promised a life in paradise as martyrs. But that doesn’t explain why other groups use suicide as well. Robert Pape, of the University of Chicago has compiled a database of virtually all suicide attacks since 1980, as well as written a book on the subject, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.

In his book, he notes that throughout history suicide has been used by Japanese Kamikazes, Islamic rebels in Chechnya, and the secular and atheist Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. So rather than the Muslim religion being the chief motivator, what Professor Pape found in his research is that repelling invaders served as the primary means to drive individuals to kill themselves. Indeed, it was driving out democratically elected governments specifically, that lead more than 300 people in the last thirty years to take their own lives.

Just in the last two weeks we heard from one of those American Muslims who ostensibly supports suicide terrorism. Tarek Mehanna, an American Muslim who was recently sentenced to 17 years for aiding terrorists, explained exactly how and why he became sympathetic to Muslims overseas. His conclusion after studying the situation was that Muslims have been the victims of terrorism themselves, and when they’ve retaliated, the cycle starts all over again, with Muslims being labeled as the terrorists.

Rep. Allen West is entirely wrong about what constitutes cultural suicide. It is not appeasing terrorists; cultural suicide is failing to realize what leads to terrorism and continuing to exacerbate the problem by killing innocent people. Not only does the US government invite further retaliation, but society in general becomes less and less inclined to reject warfare and violence. Once violence becomes acceptable overseas it’s only a matter of time before it becomes acceptable here at home.

We’re starting to see this now, with the militarization of domestic police forces, many of whom more closely resemble commandos than peace officers. It’s becoming less common to see the standard blue uniforms and simple tool belt worn by policemen for decades. Now we’re seeing the policeman’s uniform shift to black or charcoal, with body armor worn on the outside, and covered with equipment.

It’s as if the officer isn’t pulling traffic duty, but is instead setting out to raid fortified positions in a hostile neighborhood. They now carry a pistol and a tazer, many with special leg harnesses that allow more weapons and ammunition. When someone tried to rob a business in Mission, KS last year, several of the officers who responded brought M-4 carbines of the type used by SWAT and the military.

This is overkill. It serves no purpose, except to intimidate people and condition them to seeing larger caliber weapons and a more aggressive police presence in their lives. It will allow governments at all levels to one day perpetrate the same violence here that the state levies against “terrorists” overseas. Because people don’t see this militarism as anything to be afraid of, and because they’ve been taught to be servile, the situation will continue to deteriorate.

It need not go this way, however. If people will look at what is happening and recognize the move away from liberty for what it is – a large-scale decivilization of society, this trend could reverse. We don’t need an authoritarian police force to protect us from criminals, especially if that agency is equally ruthless and capable of dolling out the kind of violence they’re expected to defend us from.

Why They Fight

Today Glenn Greenwald posted the statement of Tarek Mehanna, which he read at his sentencing hearing yesterday. The full statement, which I recommend highly, can be read here. I’ve posted a number of key points below, but beyond that there has been no editing. Finally, some additional thoughts of my own on the subject are included at the end.

TAREK’S SENTENCING STATEMENT
APRIL 12, 2012

Read to Judge O’Toole during his sentencing, April 12th 2012.

In the name of God the most gracious the most merciful Exactly four years ago this month I was finishing my work shift at a local hospital. As I was walking to my car I was approached by two federal agents. They said that I had a choice to make: I could do things the easy way, or I could do them the hard way. The “easy ” way, as they explained, was that I would become an informant for the government, and if I did so I would never see the inside of a courtroom or a prison cell. As for the hard way, this is it. Here I am, having spent the majority of the four years since then in a solitary cell the size of a small closet, in which I am locked down for 23 hours each day. The FBI and these prosecutors worked very hard-and the government spent millions of tax dollars – to put me in that cell, keep me there, put me on trial, and finally to have me stand here before you today to be sentenced to even more time in a cell.

[…]

When I refused to become an informant, the government responded by charging me with the “crime” of supporting the mujahideen fighting the occupation of Muslim countries around the world. Or as they like to call them, “terrorists.” I wasn’t born in a Muslim country, though. I was born and raised right here in America and this angers many people: how is it that I can be an American and believe the things I believe, take the positions I take? Everything a man is exposed to in his environment becomes an ingredient that shapes his outlook, and I’m no different.  So, in more ways than one, it’s because of America that I am who I am.

[…]

By the time I began high school and took a real history class, I was learning just how real that paradigm is in the world. I learned about the Native Americans and what befell them at the hands of European settlers. I learned about how the descendents of those European settlers were in turn oppressed under the tyranny of King George III.

I read about Paul Revere, Tom Paine, and how Americans began an armed insurgency against British forces – an insurgency we now celebrate as the American revolutionary war. As a kid I even went on school field trips just blocks away from where we sit now. I learned about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, John Brown, and the fight against slavery in this country. I learned about Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, and the struggles of the labor unions, working class, and poor. I learned about Anne Frank, the Nazis, and how they persecuted minorities and imprisoned dissidents. I learned about Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and the civil rights struggle.

[…]

With that, my attention turned to what was happening to other Muslims in different parts of the world. And everywhere I looked, I saw the powers that be trying to destroy what I loved. I learned what the Soviets had done to the Muslims of Afghanistan. I learned what the Serbs had done to the Muslims of Bosnia. I learned what the Russians were doing to the Muslims of Chechnya. I learned what Israel had done in Lebanon – and what it continues to do in Palestine – with the full backing of the United States. And I learned what America itself was doing to Muslims. I learned about the Gulf War, and the depleted uranium bombs that killed thousands and caused cancer rates to skyrocket across Iraq.

I learned about the American-led sanctions that prevented food, medicine, and medical equipment from entering Iraq, and how – according to the United Nations – over half a million children perished as a result. I remember a clip from a ’60 Minutes‘ interview of Madeline Albright where she expressed her view that these dead children were “worth it.” I watched on September 11th as a group of people felt driven to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings from their outrage at the deaths of these children. I watched as America then attacked and invaded Iraq directly. I saw the effects of ’Shock & Awe’ in the opening day of the invasion – the children in hospital wards with shrapnel from American missiles sticking but of their foreheads (of course, none of this was shown on CNN).

I learned about the town of Haditha, where 24 Muslims – including a 76-year old man in a wheelchair, women, and even toddlers – were shot up and blown up in their bedclothes as the slept by US Marines. I learned about Abeer al-Janabi, a fourteen-year old Iraqi girl gang-raped by five American soldiers, who then shot her and her family in the head, then set fire to their corpses. I just want to point out, as you can see, Muslim women don’t even show their hair to unrelated men. So try to imagine this young girl from a conservative village with her dress torn off, being sexually assaulted by not one, not two, not three, not four, but five soldiers. Even today, as I sit in my jail cell, I read about the drone strikes which continue to kill Muslims daily in places like Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. Just last month, we all heard about the seventeen Afghan Muslims – mostly mothers and their kids – shot to death by an American soldier, who also set fire to their corpses.

[…]

All those videos and translations and childish bickering over ‘Oh, he translated this paragraph’ and ‘Oh, he edited that sentence,’ and all those exhibits revolved around a single issue: Muslims who were defending themselves against American soldiers doing to them exactly what the British did to America. It was made crystal clear at trial that I never, ever plotted to “kill Americans” at shopping malls or whatever the story was. The government’s own witnesses contradicted this claim, and we put expert after expert up on that stand, who spent hours dissecting my every written word, who explained my beliefs. Further, when I was free, the government sent an undercover agent to prod me into one of their little “terror plots,” but I refused to participate. Mysteriously, however, the jury never heard this.

So, this trial was not about my position on Muslims killing American civilians. It was about my position on Americans killing Muslim civilians, which is that Muslims should defend their lands from foreign invaders – Soviets, Americans, or Martians. This is what I believe. It’s what I’ve always believed, and what I will always believe. This is not terrorism, and it’s not extremism. It’s what the arrows on that seal above your head represent: defense of the homeland. So, I disagree with my lawyers when they say that you don’t have to agree with my beliefs – no. Anyone with commonsense and humanity has no choice but to agree with me. If someone breaks into your home to rob you and harm your family, logic dictates that you do whatever it takes to expel that invader from your home.

But when that home is a Muslim land, and that invader is the US military, for some reason the standards suddenly change. Common sense is renamed ”terrorism” and the people defending themselves against those who come to kill them from across the ocean become “the terrorists” who are ”killing Americans.” The mentality that America was victimized with when British soldiers walked these streets 2 ½ centuries ago is the same mentality Muslims are victimized by as American soldiers walk their streets today. It’s the mentality of colonialism.

When Sgt. Bales shot those Afghans to death last month, all of the focus in the media was on him-his life, his stress, his PTSD, the mortgage on his home-as if he was the victim. Very little sympathy was expressed for the people he actually killed, as if they’re not real, they’re not humans. Unfortunately, this mentality trickles down to everyone in society, whether or not they realize it. Even with my lawyers, it took nearly two years of discussing, explaining, and clarifying before they were finally able to think outside the box and at least ostensibly accept the logic in what I was saying. Two years! If it took that long for people so intelligent, whose job it is to defend me, to de-program themselves, then to throw me in front of a randomly selected jury under the premise that they’re my “impartial peers,” I mean, come on. I wasn’t tried before a jury of my peers because with the mentality gripping America today, I have no peers. Counting on this fact, the government prosecuted me – not because they needed to, but simply because they could.

I learned one more thing in history class: America has historically supported the most unjust policies against its minorities – practices that were even protected by the law – only to look back later and ask: ’what were we thinking?’ Slavery, Jim Crow, the internment of the Japanese during World War II – each was widely accepted by American society, each was defended by the Supreme Court. But as time passed and America changed, both people and courts looked back and asked ’What were we thinking?’ Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the South African government, and given a life sentence. But time passed, the world changed, they realized how oppressive their policies were, that it was not he who was the terrorist, and they released him from prison. He even became president. So, everything is subjective - even this whole business of “terrorism” and who is a “terrorist.” It all depends on the time and place and who the superpower happens to be at the moment.

In your eyes, I’m a terrorist, and it’s perfectly reasonable that I be standing here in an orange jumpsuit. But one day, America will change and people will recognize this day for what it is. They will look at how hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed and maimed by the US military in foreign countries, yet somehow I’m the one going to prison for “conspiring to kill and maim” in those countries – because I support the Mujahidin defending those people. They will look back on how the government spent millions of dollars to imprison me as a ”terrorist,” yet if we were to somehow bring Abeer al-Janabi back to life in the moment she was being gang-raped by your soldiers, to put her on that witness stand and ask her who the “terrorists” are, she sure wouldn’t be pointing at me.

The government says that I was obsessed with violence, obsessed with ”killing Americans.” But, as a Muslim living in these times, I can think of a lie no more ironic.

-Tarek Mehanna
4/12/12

So, once again we’re hearing from an actual “terrorist” what motivates individuals to fight against the people and government of the United States. He never once referred to our freedoms, our culture, or our lifestyles as driving his sympathy toward the Mujahidin. It was the barbaric treatment of civilians, women and children in particular, that caused him to become so enraged and disgusted with Washington’s foreign policy.

As I’ve mentioned many times: you can’t continue to rape and murder, torture and maim, or support those who do these things, without friends and relatives of the victims eventually deciding they’ve had enough and deciding to react with violence. In the interest of morality and human decency this should end now. Christians who advocate the wars – which always results in dehumanizing and soul-crushing behavior – should really step back and consider the implications of the policies which they advocate.

Lastly, it’s important to note that he never raised arms against anyone. As he describes in the statement, and which jurors never heard, he refused to participate when prompted by an undercover agent of the US government to carry out attacks. His focus was only on those carrying out attacks against civilians in foreign lands – and he’s the terrorist.