Where do Terrorists Come From?

It's our belief that terrorists are made, not born. How they are made is up for discussion. Well, not really.

One can argue that it was American government policies that drove Timothy McVeigh to murder more than 240 innocents in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Believed to be a sympathizer of a militia movement and that his motive was to retaliate against the government's handling of the Waco (the bombing occurred on the anniversary of the Waco catastrophe) and Ruby Ridge incidents, McVeigh came from a broken family, he joined the military, seems to have enjoyed the mayhem of war and tried to join the Green Berets. When he could not reach that goal, he resigned from the military and by all accounts became a loner drifting from gun show to gun show selling anarchist books, becoming a white supremacist in the process. Government policies. Hardly. Sounds more like a sociopath to me.

United States Commission on Human Rights and its June 11, 2008 Report on textbooks used at the Saudi government's Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia. According to the Report,

”Last fall, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom asked the U.S. Department of State to secure the release of all Arabic-language textbooks used at a Saudi government school in Northern Virginia, the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA). The Commission took this action in order to ensure that the books be publicly examined to determine whether the texts used at the ISA promote violence, discrimination, or intolerance based on religion or belief. The ISA is unlike any conventional private or parochial school in the United States in that it is operated by a foreign government and uses that government’s official texts. It falls under the Commission’s mandate to monitor the actions of foreign governments in relation to religious freedom. The government of Saudi Arabia, as a member of the international community, is committed to upholding international standards, including the obligation not to promote violence, intolerance, or hate."

What was found in the textbooks obtained from ISA? How about this passage from the Report:

"A twelfth-grade Tawhid (monotheism) textbook states that “[m]ajor polytheism makes blood and wealth permissible,” which in Islamic legal terms means that a Muslim can take the life and property of someone believed to be guilty of this alleged transgression with impunity. (Tawhid, Arabic/Sharia, 15) Under the Saudi interpretation of Islam, “major polytheists” include Shi’a and Sufi Muslims, who visit the shrines of their saints to ask for intercession with God on their behalf, as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists."

So, there we are. And the students at ISA, are they new Timothy McVeighs and Mohamed Attas in the making or just getting an old fashioned Islamic education?

When you teach hate, you get haters. End of story.