Last week’s New Yorker had a piece by Raffi Khatchadourian (btw my new favorite nom de plume) about Adam Gadahn (aka Azzam al-Amriki, Azzam the American), the kid from rural California who is now an Al Qaeda spokesman. When Adam’s story first broke a couple of years ago, I remember some reference to him being into death metal and his photo looked like some pudgy suburban white kid with a little growth under the chin, long stringy hair and that glazed over look of a high school reject. But that image ain’t Adam al-Amriki.
That image is what my feeble mind read into the story. The short of it – some kid who grew up in a cabin on a goat farm listening to death metal rejects his society and joins a terrorist subculture – isn’t enough information to form an opinion but form one I did. We all do it. But what happens over the years as we learn more about these “crazies” is that we learn that they are not crazy and aside from the Shoe Bomber they are generally not even dumb (well the Shoe Bomber might be crazy too). Adam al-Amriki is far from dumb. And as it happens his story is pretty easy to relate to for someone like me and I’ll bet many of you Dear Readers too.
The medium of it (for “the long of it” go back in time and read Khatchadourian’s excellent article) – Adam Gadahn is the grandson of a prominent Urologist who was born Jewish but raised his son agnostic. His father Phil Perlman was on the West Coast Psychedelic scene with a pretty happening outfit called the Beat of the Earth*. Phil Perlman found God on the beach and changed his name to Gadahn which is a form of the biblical name Gideon (who defeated Israel’s enemies). Then, after finding God, Phil Gadahn continued to play music. He put out some good sh*t in the mid-seventies – albeit under a certain born-again-esque placated title, Relatively Clean Rivers. He moved to rural California and started raising goats. Adam was born into this and seems to have respected his father and his family and all their business as weird as it was. What he seems to have rejected was what he saw around him – urban sprawl, materialism, traffic.
For living in a rural cabin surrounded by goats, Adam had a worldly education. He stayed with his prosperous grandfather (a doctor) and his grandmother (a college teacher) in the summers. He traveled the country and overseas with his aunt (an environmentalist and journalist). He even appeared on TV as an environmental journalist for his aunt’s TV show. All the while and still under the age of 17, he grew passionate about death metal.
Adam wasn’t a trivial death metal fan. He consumed the stuff and not just the music, he got into the literature that inspired it like Nietzsche, Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft. He reached out to the death metal community and was “probably in contact with, minimum, several hundred people worldwide.”** He eventually put out his own stuff under the name Aphasia. But his stuff wasn’t exactly metal – it was noise collage with metal samples, classical music and “bleating goats.”***
Then, in 1995, his metal world fell around him. As the New Yorker put it:
“By 1995, several record companies had signed death metal’s most prominent bands in an attempt to replicate the commercial success of Metallica, a group that combined various metal sub genres in a way that appealed to mainstream audiences. In the liner notes of an Aphasia tape he (Adam Gadahn) made just before he moved, Gadahn decried “commercial death & thrash metal, and the rest of you losers! Die and burn in Hell!!!”
Okay by this point the kid is on to something and he’s only seventeen. He reaches out to the Muslim community, a move that the New Yorker doesn’t really explain but if you look at his paternal history it makes sense. His father gave freeeeking out a go as well as Christianity; his grandpappy rejected his Jewish upbringing and became agnostic (or perhaps even an atheist). He’s close with his family, a family that explores things, so he goes for the unexplored. But it ain’t Islam that turns him to the dark side. The Muslim teachings he gets are pretty conservative. Here’s what his imam, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, told the New Yorker about the concept of jihad:
“A struggle for peace and justice, so that you establish peace in the world, you establish justice in the world, and defend your own rights-the right of dignity and honor and freedom, and the right of your religion. So you defend yourself for that, and you defend other people who are suffering and oppressed.”
Sounds a lot like what ya might hear coming out of the mouth of one of your typical American politicians really. Anyway Siddiqi and the Islamic Society of Orange County was pretty conservative and rejected the strange subculture that Adam Gadahn eventually became a part of. Adam ended up living in an apartment with five or six other young Muslim men. So he lived in an apartment with a bunch of radical guys, an apartment that one female visitor described as smelling like foot. This proved to be his downfall as the article goes into explaining. It’s not about the religion. It’s the old “bunch of guys” syndrome.
“…men often became radicalized through a process akin to oneupmanship.”
Does this sound familiar to anybody who has played in a band? Particularly to a close-knit band, a traveling band and so forth.
The whole point is that it’s all very easy to empathize with. I get it. I understand why Adam turned to music and found a home. I get why he looked elsewhere too. I get why the “bunch of guys” syndrome can lead you down a pretty crazy path. The artist formerly known as Jerm probably gets it too. My sister gets it, maybe.
My sister is a Fundamentalist Christian. She was raised Catholic so her family thinks she’s freeeeky. But she ain’t dumb. She graduated high school top of her class and got a full college scholarship (tuition, room & board…everything). Growing up, she was a skeptical kid. She was nobody’s dumbo. She lives in China in a fairly remote area northeast of Tibet. She’s trying to save some souls over there.**** But China is having a pretty impressive affect on my sister as well. She’s fluent in Chinese now and she speaks some of the weird nomadic languages. She looks great in a Tibetan outfit (a local tailor had to make one her size because she stands a good foot and a half over most folks around her). She adores the culture and she’s learning us (the family) some pretty good stuff. I can’t wait to visit.
My sister’s life changed around the same time that Adam took the big leap, Jerm too and my cousin the Wall Street Wiz turned monk (but enough already). I get it.
The point is there’s more to people living at the extreme ends of the poles than is often given them credit and sometimes it takes a damn dramatic shift to make a difference; and somehow I imagine that almost anybody who has ever played music, joined a band, started writing about music in a group situation, or picked a record off the shelf that looked a little troubling…well that person has a little insight into what is going on here.
Anyway all this talk about stuff makes me want to listen to music. Here is Adam’s dad singing a pretty little tune. And John Cale singing about Gideon taking on the Chinese (hint: he loses).*****
Relatively Clean Rivers – Easy Ride
John Cale – Gideon’s Bible
*I couldn’t find the Beat of the Earth online so I started a pandora station called the Beat of the Earth. It’s a really cool thing to do. Thanks Clay for the tip.
**Spinoza Ray Prozak quote from the New Yorker
***I looked long and hard for some of Adam’s work online but didn’t find. If someone does, please post!
****for a humorous take on Chinese missionaries read Mark Twain’s essay the United States of Lyncherdom*****
The mp3′s will be available for one week. Thank you to the blog Raven Sings the Blues for originally posting the Relatively Clean Rivers.
It sounds to me like perhaps the world as we know it wasn’t working for your sister, so she went ahead and found something better: a world that she could WORK FOR. Which, is obviously about as admirable as any one action could possibly be. I should be so lucky. However, I do think that Adam probably went “crazy”. Now, keep in mind that I’m not putting a negative connotation on the word “crazy”, and I’m not going to begin to try to define what “crazy” really is, so please, everyone, don’t be angry with me and ask me what in the hell do I mean…I’m just saying, it sounds like his actions or decisions were born from a place of despair, or sadness, anger, what have you…and that of course can sometimes be a very dangerous thing, or at the very least perhaps you will get a glimpse of someone’s ugliest side…or maybe a wonderful side and the “crazy” went ahead and planted a tree…I’m really going down a cul-de-sac here, hopefully you get my drift. I’d like to address the Death Metal thing, if I may, and then tie it in to my own experiences with bands. Cramer probably knows a lot more about this then I do, but I was fascinated that he podcasted a few Mayhem numbers…that is a band that I’ve explored and ultimately pulled away from, because my research led me into areas such as Drug Abuse, Church Burning, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and even Murder. My big brother is a Methodist Minister in Montana, and when I read that this band was into some of this shit, my immediate reaction was “fuck you…and then fuck you, again”. Now, I could be wrong about the whole thing, maybe the stories are hype and horseshit, but ultimately I decided not to send any of my energy their way…it just didn’t feel right. Later, I discovered that most of the band members are either in prison or dead, but I wouldn’t exactly say that I feel good about that. I’d also like to add that I’m not passing judgement on John or his reasons for listening to whatever he wants. Now, I’ve been in a band before, where drug use became a factor, and I just said, “Sorry, it ain’t me, babe”, and I cut out. Does that make me a “chicken shit” or somebody who doesn’t really put the band first, and all of that jive? I don’t know. It happened, and that’s that. In a previous post, I admitted to having a fascination for listening to damaged people making damaged music…”Tonight’s The Night” is a perfect example…the band sound drunk and exhausted on every song…hell, Danny Whitten literally is dead by the time the thing is released, and there he is singing “Cmon Baby Let’s Go Downtown”…presumably to go score more dope. And I love listening to it, despite the fact that his song subjects are what killed him… and he’s more than just some dude on the stereo…ultimately he’s somebody’s son, brother, husband, etc., plus the fact that I’m not like these people at all, so what exactly am I “getting” from this music? I’m not sure this is exactly what you had in mind, Kilian, but this is what I’m feeling at the moment…it’s strange, because I’ve never really confronted myself about my enjoyment in being a voyeur to someone else’s darkness. It’s not a good feeling, either.
Great post kilian. I’ve always been a firm believer that people on the edge (of whatever) can often give some of the best insight into what the area they are on the edge of. Similar to the way one gets insights into ones home town after living somewhere else and coming back.
I think I must agree with Matthew, at the risk of making him want to bang me yet again. Clearly, your sister’s choice, while many consider it unorthodox (pun intended), was born out of a desire to help people in a constructive manner. She is attempting to make a difference in the world, and bettering herself in the process.
I suppose you could say that Adam was/is trying to make a difference in the world, too. Still, there’s just no getting around the fact that A) the difference he wants to make robs individuals of freedom and dignity; and B) involoves a whole lot of DEstructive methods.
As a religious person, it is difficult for me to dismiss someone else’s religious conviction as silly or bullshit, but it’s very hard to respect any religious viewpoint which aims to engender feelings of hatred, and legitimizes the use of violence and fear to achieve its already unpleasant goals.
On the other hand, I know where you’re coming from on the “bunch of guys” point. Really, it amounts to fitting in and being well thought of in whatever circle you find yourself. Plenty of people do similar things in the opposite direction; take for example the current Christian youth movements. I went to middle school at a Catholic school in Houston, which had a strong, almost virulent youth program. There was a lot of pressure to be involved in the thing; pressure to which I personally reacted negatively. Not my cup o’. Anyway, it was sort of the same deal. A bunch of kids trying to be cool in that particular sphere, getting more and more strongly involved in the thing, I always suspected mostly to show how cool and godly they were.
But that was just annoying. Adam’s blend of religious-fervor cum one upmanship went quite a bit further, it would seem. That’s the point at which it stops being understandable, and starts being absurd.
I really liked this column Kilian.
I don’t know Adam. I don’t know his final motivations. I don’t think you (Kilian) are presuming to know either, but rather painting us a picture of how things can flow and find themselves where they end.. by circumstance, intention, fate or however you look at it. I do feel weird when I see stories like on the Columbine murders, and somehow music is made to be a factor in the assault. Music I actually like. Which brings me to Mayhem, which Matthew Thurman mentions disdain for.
Personally, their sound doesn’t do as much for me as other bands from the same genre. They do indeed have a dark history. Church burnings included. If I play G.G. Allin, does this mean I advocate and think eating feces is great? No. Does it mean I love him? No. Its just playing a song by a band. If it can be considered giving Satan props by extension.. because of the band’s personal actions outside of their music, whatever. If people don’t have the chance to decide for themselves, then we all just get to have the opionion of our neighbor , and no thanks. This takes me back to my guest column about how witch hunts are still fashionable. I think its important that we are willing to draw attention to the whole spectrum of music without trying to edit what people hear. If it’s interesting, it’s interesting.
I think I made myself clear. yak yak yak. Thanks for the interesting column Kilian, and I can’t wait to hear about your trip to China.
Yeah, I agree with that sentiment, EM. I sometimes feel a bit conflicted about some of the music I like, in that the subject matter is OFTEN deeply opposed to my own personal belief system, as are the actions of those who have created said music. Then again, I feel completely able to detatch my moral sense from my artistic sense. Just because something represents reprehensible subject matter does not mean that it is not completely valid – often beautiful. Take, for example, Guernica. It’s a wonderful painting about an awful subject. Even in its beauty, the imagery itself is highly disturbing, painful even.
I used to catch a lot of shit from Christian friends who align much more closely with a fundamentalist mindset than I do. They would ask how I can believe in God, and still listen to music which “God would find insulting and offensive.” The only response I could think of, and I think the only valid response to a question like that, was “it SOUNDS good to me.” Just like you mention, EM, nobody should assume you participate in, or condone, shit lunches, or that John wants to burn churches, just because you listen to a particular artist. I think that, in order to appreciate art of any kind, you have to have the ability to suspend, or at least separate, your sense of moral certitude. The appreciation of art is NOT an act oc complicity.
The direction that this comment thread is going could get mired down in personal politics very easily. I think I am going to stay away from it. Did “Cop Killer” kill any cops, Did Screwdriver lynch any blacks, etc… but thanks SoR for understanding what I was trying to say.
~Sincerely,
A fun-loving hatemonger
It’s those beautiful virgin women they’re expecting on the other side. That makes their endeavors, whatever they may be, worth the effort.
The article, and my post too hopefully, doesn’t draw a line between death metal and Al Qaeda. Adam Gadahn grew disappointed with death metal because he saw it as a sell out then he went looking for something else. I didn’t mention it but the article also points out that Adam Gadahn didn’t align his belief system with death metal. He regularly questioned lyrics and he made light of the fact that he lived on a goat farm (satanic goat images being a part of the whole dm thing). The fact that Adam sought out a musical community for solace is what I’m interested in.
I think Matthew, SoR that you might not understand Fundamental Christian Missionaries. I know I didn’t until my sister got involved. I had a “the Good Earth,” Peace Corp, “let’s build some latrines” view but really all the fundamentalists are concerned with is your eternal soul so latrines bedamned (hehe) they just want you to accept JC as your savior, blah blah blah. So anyway the point there is that my sister isn’t out to do good deeds on this earth anymore than Al Qeada apparently is.
Matthew you get my drift talking about bands and drugs and that sort of thing – that’s a part of being able to relate. That’s what I’m getting at but I don’t agree with you. I think this guy isn’t crazy at all which isn’t to say I sympathize with him but I do empathize. I think he’s in over his head. He’s the first guy in 50 years to be wanted for treason in the U.S. I say you don’t have to agree with this guy at all and for that matter I don’t think you should but you should be able to see that this guy is no dumby and he’s not mad. When you see that you start seeing the world differently too. And the bit about the beautiful virgins that ain’t this guy either.
Anyway I dig the music his pop made man. It’s pretty cool. I want to hear more of it. I’d also like to hear Adam’s Aphasia stuff so again if anybody gets hold of that let me know!
Yeah…see the thing is, I’ve done all of the same drugs as everybody else, but I don’t really DO them, you know what I mean? I certainly don’t regret any of my experiences but at the same time, I could see how it was never really gonna be my thing, and I’m always thankful that I’m not really the type of person who could easily fall off of the deep end with that sort of thing. Just trying to stop smoking cigarettes has been torture enough. I couldn’t imagine any other kind of dependancy…Anyway, something that’s been hinted at, and something that I’d like to address is this: I’ve discovered over the last few years that I’m guilty of musicism. Let me explain…I hate current hip hop, and r’n'b. Since about the early 90′s. I hate it with a passion. However, I really like old rap records, and I love soul music from the 50′s, 60′s 70′s, and I also really like that 80′s electro funk like the Time, Zapp, Rick James, Prince, Gap Band, etc. I also really like Disco. I thought a lot of disco records were pretty smoking. I also buy jazz records practically every week, and this is a genre mostly dominated by black men. But, whenever I see Current rappers getting into any kind of legal trouble, I’m instantly like “Stupid, fucking thugs”…however, whenever I hear stories about say, Lynyrd Skynyrd doing the exact same stuff, it just cracks me up. So I began thinking to myself “You’re a rascist, buddy. You don’t like black people.” But that self inflicted accusation didn’t really seem to hold water, because I absolutely adore all this other black music from the past…and then it hit me: I’m a musicist. In other words, if you make a record that I really dig, like “There’s A Riot Goin’ On”, then I will justify and accept the fact that you’re on PCP, you beat your wife, you have shoot outs with the cops, and actually hire gangsters to murder your bass player. But if you put out a record that I simply cannot stand, like anything by Jay Z or Puff Daddy, if you get pulled over for so much as a parking ticket, I’m just all over it…”mindless dipshits, etc.” I’m a musicist. What’s up with that?
I’ll venture to say Matthew that you also seem to be suffering from an addiction to record collecting.
Kilian, I think that’s a good point about his feeling that death metal sells out and isn’t pure enough. I’ve always thought that Osama was basically an Islamic Holden Caulfield, going around calling everybody a phony. He just takes the sentiment to its logical conclusion. He doesn’t want to have to deal with the idea that somebody disagrees with him, so he tries to elminate them.
Most people come to accept that other people have valid opinions. But then, most people don’t go out into the desert to intentionally isolate themselves, hoping not to have to deal with the real world. I’d say that we lucked out that Jim Morrison and Gram Parsons left us when they did. Who knows what kind of jihad they might have eventually launched. Mr. Mojo Akbar!
Crud I I don’t see the piece on the New Yorker’s website – I kind of feel the need for filling in the details after reading your post. What issue was that?
Anyhow, kudos Kilian for another solid post.
It’s the Jan 22 issue. The one with the picture of Bush dressed as a caesar.
Speaking of musical wierdos turned middle-eastern extremist, Jerry Cassales of former Devo fame has launched his own Jihad. I will let you know when you can read my review of Mine is not a Holy War
over at Space City Rock.
Freaking Jerry C!! man have i got a story about that lime-green-bermuda-shorts-suit-wearing, five-time-wine-returning, car-in-the -shade-while-we-wait-for-light-to-change-demanding, hot-babes-in-hot-tub-expecting, LA-has-so-much-more-style-than-anywhere-else-ponti-
ficating asshole. I got him to sign all my DEVO records and then i went and sold them the next day for a tidy sum.
Sweet. Maybe I can utilize your methods if I interview him. But that would require purchasing a large quantity of DEVO records, as I currently own 0. Maybe I could pick them all up used, for cheap, on ebay, then have him sign them and sell them back, for not as cheap, on ebay.
I have put the New Yorker piece online here. Enjoy.
It appears that I’m missing page 59. I’ll put that up tonight.
Thanks for the reading assignments Kilian- I was walking around with that issue but couldn’t quite make myself read that article because, unfortunately, I stereotype and generalize about everything Islamic, comforted by believing that they are a pre-enlightenment culture that somehow managed to unlearn all of advances & fusions made under the Abassids. In my heart, I know this is not the case. It is a great article.
You’ve noted the difference between jihad and proselytism, though? The old question of method, ends justifying the means etc. I wouldn’t conflate your sister’s activities with Gadahn’s just because they’ve both traveled to mountainous regions and have adoped new cultures.
What he seems to have rejected was what he saw around him – urban sprawl, materialism, traffic.
A lot of people have really bad reactions to suburban sprawl; it’s just that some of them choose to study urban design in grad school and others decide to join al qaeda. It is a conscious and deliberate choice. Maybe he just thinks the Islamic clerics would do a better job of planning than the framework provided to us under property rights law and the U.S. constitution? I’ll concede that our framework has landed us in a profound mess, but he thinks any [insert long-winded invective with may expletives] caliphate would do a better job than our demoralized city planners, he’s more than a bit delusional.
I’m going back to work on high-density, sustainable housing now; it is in the process of being cut back to being lower-density and not-as-sustainable by lawyers and real estate developers. While listening to Ed, that is.
Thanks Kilian!
Matthew – I wouldn’t worry about being a musicist. It’s a lot better than being a racist besides there’s probably plenty of other music forms you don’t like – maybe modern latin polka, morman choirs, young boy bands put together by LA agents doing barbershop quartet stuff…
Justin – I wish Gram Parsons had gone off to the desert before he inspired the Eagles. Oh and thanks for putting that article up. That sucks that the New Yorker takes these things down when the new one comes up.
SoR – do inform when that piece is up and Carlos…what the eff????
Heidi – wow, right on, yep, and you go girl! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but I lived in the Middle East as a child so there are some aspects of Middle East news that hits me but overall I am terribly bored by the stuff having been first front page stories about radical desert dwellers all of my 38 years so I don’t blame you at all for skipping that article. I’ve been getting the New Yorker for over 15 years. In the past four years my reading habits have changed – now instead of reading the articles, book reviews etc secondly, I read the fiction and the poetry. I’ve learned more from studying the fiction and poetry. Of course…the going’s on in the front and Talk of the Town always come first.
oops that was supposed to be “having been force-fed front page articles…”
Oh and Heidi – I do have a big problem with the United States being the world leader in polution, energy usage and stuff like that even though a rather small portion of the human population lives here. Also destroying a beautiful continent, buffalo and indians kind of pisses me off as does our military bombing strategies. In fact we’ve done a hell of a lot of self-destruction in a very short period of time and it really pisses me off. I’m a bit of a luddite these days I’m afraid. No I don’t think Al Qaeda holds any answers for us and I do think you are on a good track and more people need to think like that, but I think we are way way way off track (I think you do too). I took a 9,000 mile trip this summer. It left me depressed. We build crap and we waste a lot of energy to do it and drive around between it (I guess me too – note 9,000 mile journey wasn’t on foot).
k- was going to title the last post ‘clarinets and conspiracy theories’ but i ran out of steam before i could get to the conspiracy theory part- besides, it would have been a bit off topic. i’m most intrigued by the conspiracies hidden in plain sight: the s.u.v. tax deduction, National Housing Act of 1934 (a blueprint for redlining), National Interstate and Defense Highways Act for example. franchises and REITs piss me off.
have to get some work done now…
Are there other Al-Qaeda members that have a stated opposition to urban sprawl? I haven’t heard anything like that before.
Actually yes Justin, ’round election time Osama was sending out liberal messages in what the mainstream media (probably correctly) perceived as a ploy to swing the elections towards Bush (because who’s gonna vote for the party of Osama Obama?). So yes but not quite for the same reasons as Mr. Gadahn.
Btw thanks Heidi for plugging the compilation. Dear Readers if you haven’t ordered a comp (and you haven’t) what the hell are you waiting for??? We’re making good music over here. Jeesh.
Heids, thanks for saving me time. I was just about to post a similar comment, after Kilian noted that he didn’t think I understood fundamentalist Christian Missionaries. The exact thought of end v. means exploded into my brain. Now I can spend a little more time writing disaster recovery procedures for FERC/NERC to rip apart next week.
SoR – I just want to make one thing clear. I dind’t mean any disrespect to your intelligence whatsoever. Hell, I can tell by your posts and tastes that you’re one smart dude. I only meant to say that unless you are down with the christian thing, you can’t really interpret what my sister’s missionary work amounts to as doing any earthly good.
I do think that there are some similarities to Adam and my sister. They are both extremely spiritual people who have little fear for their bodily well-being and have dedicated their life to their spiritual beliefs and this has led them down radical paths. This change happened to them at a very intense youthful time in their lives.
One other thing that I just have to point out – it’s not fair to say I’m relating jihad to prosletyzing because it is unfair to a legitimate understanding of the word jihad – just as it’s not fair to associate most muslims with the works of Al Qaeda. Dig?
Anyway for the record I’m also not advocating either path.
Kilian, every word I said about Jerry C is absolutely true. Maybe one day i’ll do a post about the whole thing. wait, no i wont. But maybe some day at a bar you can ask me and i’ll tell you the story while we drink some Maker’s (on your tab of course).
Kilian – I took no offense, nor did I think you were in any way maligning me. I simply used the reference to your thinking I don’t understand fundamentalist missionaries to point out what my comment, which Heidi took care of, was in response to.
I agree that neither of their actions overtly does earthly good; indeed many would say that they don’t AIM to do earthly good. I disagree, from the standpoint of one who puts a lot of stock in theological concepts like Pascal’s Wager, but that is an entirely different post – not here, likely.
Anyway, I was simply thinking about the fact that, theoretically, both religions are aiming to save souls. Whether or not this is an earthly good, it certainly is an attempt to do something positive, even if only in the mind of the
believer/missionary. The difference, and I think this is obvious, is methodology. Your sister, I presume, does not hope to murder any sherpas who don’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Gadahn, on the other hand, fully intends to do just that. That’s where the crazy comes in. There’s an interesting book by Joseph Ratzinger (that’s right, that crazy pope guy – though this was written long ago) called (I think I’m remembering this right) On Truth and Tolerance. It’s not really about THIS, per se. It’s actually a Catholic appologetics book about the tendency in modern society to think that tolerance of other people’s ideas is the utmost (indeed some think) only true value. Ratzinger asserts, basically, that when one is in possession of a truth (any truth, be philosophical extension) it is one’s right and obligation to decry those things which stand in diametric opposition to that truth. To that end – while the muslim faith in and of itself may be perfectly valid, the extremist assertion that it is the duty of any muslim to kill any non muslim is, and should be declared, completely, no holds-barred, absolutely batshit crazy.
Sure there are correlations between your sister and Gadahn. Or those two and extremists of any stripe, in many cases. But those corellations extend only to exactly what you said in that paragraph near the end:”I do think that there are some similarities to Adam and my sister. They are both extremely spiritual people who have little fear for their bodily well-being and have dedicated their life to their spiritual beliefs and this has led them down radical paths. This change happened to them at a very intense youthful time in their lives.”
At that point, one can be said to be, at least from our limited perspective given your comments, sane but out there. The other, from any perspective, SHOULD be recognized as totally nuts.
Matt, your story makes me think of the guy in Do the Right Thing that loves black artists, but is a racist towards the actual black folks he knows. Nice.
With all due respect SoR and without advocating anything Al Qaeda, my little mission (this post) has failed, at least as it pertains to you, in taking the insanity argument out of the equation.
Sun Myung Moon operates a fish processing business in Kodiak alaska. All the employees are Moonies.
No god only “Bob”.
k- I don’t think you’ve failed. The insanity charge doesn’t stick, that’s why they were able to find him guilty of treason.
al qaeda could be called a reaction against modernity, or evidence of an internal saudi conflict that happens to be expressed on a worldwide stage. not one of them is insane.
in fact, Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, didn’t call the extremists crazy in that latest uproar, he just echoed the words of a Byzantine emperor who said “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
not crazy, just evil and inhuman… i can’t imagine why muslims would have been upset.
Heidi – I smell a ratz.
The Moonies sell a lot of fish it’s true…and talk about the “bunch of guys” syndrome.
Speaking of a bunch of guys, the Church of the Subgenius has been awfully quiet on this subject.
I’ve got this 1-800 Jay Hova number, but I’m afraid all I’ll hear is “bob bob bob bob bob bob bob ” if I call it, or I’d ask them what they thought.
Jay Hova? OK that is quite the reference – how the hell did I not bump into you in Houston?
. . .Bowing out. . .
Penius: a preternaturally gifted male fornicator.
Wasn’t it Osar Wilde who said, “I have nothing to declare but my penius”?