I don’t think terrorists and poverty goes hand in hands, on the contrary I think they’re often from the middle class and often that it’s middle class conservative ides that motivate them. What I believe is most often the cause of conservative & religious terrorism is an inability to straddle the divide between their traditional roots and the modernity of the society they live in – which is also attested by the extreme conservative and misogynist ideologues they embrace. Often they feel adrift, powerless, inadequate and scared.
Don’t be silly. You didn’t kill him, there’s no need for you to feel personally responsible or to express public sorrow – though condemnation is good. And the same goes for Gum. (I don’t feel sorry for Theo van Gogh. I’m outraged and enraged that he was killed.)
I am not so sure “Harry’s Place” is a left-wing site. If it is, it is certainly one of the more moderate ones, because I (a conservative) pretty much agreed with almost everything on their Home Page. Scroll down to “What is going on over there?” for another disturbing story about the lack of European will. You will also find “Bush’s Secularist Triumph” by the left-wing but always-brilliant Christopher Hitchens. That one is so good that it deserves its own link:
Some on this thread have accused me of using alarmist language and being melodramatic. Mr. Hitchens, however, tends to agree with me:
“We know that the obscene butchery of filmmaker Theo van Gogh [is] only a warning of what is coming in Madrid, London, Rome, and Paris, let alone Baghdad and Basra.”
And finally, here is a piece of encouraging news from Iran:
Roseworm:Some on this thread have accused me of using alarmist language and being melodramatic. Mr. Hitchens, however, tends to agree with me
Well, Hitchens himself is widely known for using alarmist language and being melodramatic. Remember, this is the guy who made his name railing against Mother Teresa, before he jumped on the anti-Islamist bandwagon.