Answer to Islamic Radicals:
Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll
by Dan Ehrlich



The Wiki Leaks style Palestine Papers has Palestinians up in arms, not against the Israelis, but other Arabs for leaking the information. Meanwhile in the USA, the House of Representatives is preparing to hold hearings into Islamic radicalization of young American Muslims. There's one thing that links both these events.

This is a far cry from the 60s when affluent middle class white kids on college campuses vented their anger because less than affluent Black people didn’t have equal opportunities. This resulted in violent subversive organizations such as the Students for a Democratic Society and the infamous Weather Underground, as well as Congressional hearings. Remember those names and their modest, by today’s standards, acts of terror.

Today, believe it or not, the situation we face with the so-called radicalization of American Muslims and even the Middle East is much simpler than the convoluted socio-economic 60s radical scene.. Simpler if the liberal establishment wanted to see it that way instead of trying engineer an outcome the way detective novelist Mickey Spillane wrote his Mike Hammer volumes, creating an ending first and working towards it.

The one all-powerful binding thread that stretches from Mecca to Dearborn, Michigan, is that mass opiate, religion. It’s behind most present and past world conflict. And who fights these endless religious wars? They’re mainly ignorant peasants without a pot to piss in. But, they do have a wealth of faith...a faith that has them, and the authoritarian governments that rule them, do its bidding.

America offers a prime example of the effects freedom, wealth and education can have on people from all over the world, many who loathed one another, but who came together to build a nation.

Yet, at first the various diverse factions were divided and segregated, not just by color, but also by ethnicity and religion. It wasn’t until the formation of the world’s first mass middle class that most of us put away petty bigoted ideas, began to live on the same streets and became good neighbors.

Nothing dulls religious fervor more than affluence, freedom and the ability to enjoy life…things that are missing from much of the Islamic world.

Compare Israel and the Palestinians. Israel, a European style social democracy, is enjoying a booming economy, a mixture of western and Middle East lifestyle and is very high on the international happiness index. Oh, and most Israelis are only marginally religious, while Judaism, in any case, is not an imperial religion trumpeting its eventual triumph over the world.

On the other hand most Palestinians are very religious, held captive by dogma and have bought into the constant religious goal to free the land of the Zionist Infidels…Their economic status is dependent on which side of the tracks they live. Residents of Gaza tend to be the most religious and also the poorest, being ruled by Hamas Muslim zealots. What never has been answered is where has all the money gone, billions in aid and donations?

Now, let’s go to a different plane of existence where everyone in the Middle East is middle class, mainly well educated, they have nice homes and fun lives without some grand imam pulling their strings. While today Israel is the only nation where Jews and Arabs live together in the same country, in this other world they're living together on the same street. They would still have their faiths, but with other interests, they wouldn't necessarily be the obsessions they had been to many people.

Shift over to America, the key to prevent Islamic radicalization is allowing Muslim youth, especially young men, to participate in all America has to offer, including socializing with women. You have to ask yourself how many Al Qaeda recruits are guys who are just sexually frustrated and bursting with testosterone?

One society allows its people to think for themselves, express themselves and enjoy the fruits of an affluent lifestyle and the other doesn’t. This then may breed tension and rebellion among the young…but a rebellion against American values not against their family values…They may reject that in which they can’t participate, holding out their religion as the rationale for their rejection.

Islamic immigration is a post WW2 event in America. Our history shows it takes a generation or two for assimilation to take place, if at all. Religion can have a strong hold on people. Look at Hasidic Jews and the Amish, people have kept their unique identities.The big difference here is, members of these groups don’t threaten to destroy the country in the name of their religion. They are happy to be in America.

The big, big challenge for America is to maintain its middle class and all the benefits that living in this nation has to offer. Without these there would be little psychological incentive for Muslims to assimilate and be supportive of the country.