The nod to “Ethnic or sectarian antagonisms” is correct, but it does not describe the Muslim terrorist as precisely as I believe it should. We need to focus on the fact that Muslims are murdering because God wants them to. Faith is the problem, in other words.
Overall, Bay’s fundamental requirements for the foundation and operation of an international terrorist movement seem to me to be met by feminism. Certainly the antagonisms are there, at least among the hard core. The fact that feminists have not been blowing up buildings and assassinating politicians appears to be at odds with the criteria. Sure, the opponents of feminism have committed a few murders at abortion clinics — what, two or three? But that seems to have ended the madness, and Gloria Steinem does not need the security required by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Why is that? Well, people just don’t have the stomach to be all that violent in Western Civilization’s cultural civil war, and that may be due to our fundamental commitment to the rights of the indvidual — which is totally lacking in Islam.
This is not a definitive critique of Bay’s list, just a suggestion that faith is a driving force that is given short shrift on that list, and that the underlying values of the culture have been ignored. Values, or ethics, have a lot to do with how far people are willing to go, and a quick perusal of the Koran will make clear that the concepts of right and wrong found in those pages are extraordinarily dangerous to non-Muslims, as long as Muslims don’t ignore those bloodthirsty commandments of God. Christians and Jews do ignore large sections of the Bible, which is why those religions are as peaceful as they are: people have lost faith. They just don’t believe that when, for example, God commanded death for adulterers, it was a mandate that applies to us today.
I suggest that the list be reformulated in accord with this prediction: until Islam evolves as Christianity and Judaism have, we will have to face Islamic terrorists. They are a special case. Give it about 600 years, and things may calm down.
