Militant Islamic fundamentalism has more in common with alienated American youth culture than we may realize.
When identity-based movements bonding the pampered upper class with the neglected underclass arise in American culture, it should not surprise us when they develop analogs elsewhere in the world.
Of these, none is in need of more urgent attention than what is currently occurring in the Islamic world.
I will leave it for others to explore the international relations, political and military origins of the Islamic fundamentalist revolutionary movement. For purposes of this discussion, identity issues in a dissociative world are topic enough.
More Specifics
For much of the Islamic world, a sense of insignificance in the "larger world" is almost unavoidable.
Suicide bombers "become somebody."
Similar identity issues can draw affluent Islamic youth and well-off American radicals.
Islamic fundamentalism can seem to attack the ultimate source of people's diminishment.
Effectively countering the appeal of Islamic fundamentalism may require a clearer sense of what's actually wrong.
(c) COPYRIGHT 2002 ROBERT WINTER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
