OPINION
The
Saudi Wahhabis are the real foe
We
must take our fight to the preachers and financiers of terror.
By NASSIM NICHOLAS
TALEB 11/16/15, 6:01 PM CET Updated 11/16/15, 6:04 PM CET
Since 2001 our
policy for fighting Islamic terrorists has been, to put it politely,
missing the elephant in the room, sort of like treating symptoms and
completely missing the disease.
Policymakers and
slow-thinking bureaucrats stupidly let terrorism grow by ignoring the
roots. So we lost a generation: Someone who went to grammar school in
Saudi Arabia (our “ally”) after September 11 is now an adult,
indoctrinated into believing and supporting Salafi violence, hence
encouraged to finance it — while we got distracted by the use of
complicated weapons and machinery.
Even worse, the
Wahhabis have accelerated their brainwashing of East and West Asians
with their madrassas, thanks to high oil revenues.
* * *
So instead of
invading Iraq, blowing up Jihadi John and individual terrorists, thus
causing a multiplication of these agents, it would have been be
easier to focus on the source of all problems: the Wahhabi/Salafi
education and the promotion of intolerance by which a Shiite or a
Yazidi or a Christian are deviant people.
If we absolutely
need to put people in Guantanamo, it would be far more effective to
ship the Salafi preachers and Wahhabi clerics over there, not just
the people swayed by their teaching. And if we need to correct the
profound Saudi problem, we need to start by sending to them our
preachers, educating them into tolerance, explaining the very concept
of the separation of church and state. Or, better even, encourage
Muslim preachers who promote religious tolerance (“laka dinak wa li
dini“) — instead of seeing them ostracized.
And if you find
violence unavoidable, it should be directed at the Saudi and Qatari
funders of violence, as well as the Salafi theorists, rather than the
young performers.
P.S. Beware the
usual ISIL crypto-sympathizer who sort of “explains” (that is,
justifies) what happened (the intentional targeting of civilians)
with some other Western event that can hark all the way to the
Crusades… Otherwise it is presented as “biased.” You can spot
such people from a mile away. For them, you cannot condemn ISIL
without at the same time trying to be “balanced.” Who are they
fooling? This is the technique of bundling together problems that
should be treated independently, and you need to learn to deal with
such people by forcing them to discuss the problem of ISIL on its
own.
Nassim Nicholas
Taleb is the author, among other books, of “The Black Swan,” and
a founder of the Real World Risk Institute.
Authors:
Nassim Nicholas
Taleb
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