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Science is no buffer between reason and fanaticism any more than it is a buffer between Jim Fowler and “razor-sharp teeth” in one of my childhood favorites, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.

In 1990, Yusuf al-Qaradawi wrote Priorities of The Islamic Movement, and in it he described the Islamist ideology as a “scientific ideology.”

A Scientific Ideology

The ideology on which our aspired education is based has specific features that should be sought and established by teachers and driven home by educational curricula.

First, this ideology is scientific in the full sense of the word.

By ” scientific “, we do not mean that it is scientific as related to abstract and applied sciences ­ though they are a field that should be sought by Muslims by all means ­ but rather that it is an ideology that would not accept any claim without proof, any result without preamble, any evidence without documentation or any preamble that is not totally free from suspicion.

We want “scientific thinking” and scientific spirit” to guide our life in every way, so that we may view things, issues, situations and people in a scientific way, and pass our tactical and strategic decisions on issues related to economy, politics, education and other fields with a scientific mentality that is free from the influence of emotions, improvisation, self ­centeredness, herd ­ effect and the many diversified pretexts given for everything today. Such adverse factors have come to dominate our behavior to a great extent. A decision maker who is under the influence of his or his party’s whims will only be seeking to appease the public by doing what they like, not what is good for them and their future in their homeland and their Nation as a whole.

The root principles of science, in particular it’s disciplined application of logic and procedure, is in fact consistent with the broader Islamist ideology (vice any particular strand or brand). At least according to Qaradawi, no lightweight in Islamist circles.

Acknowledging this just might shed some much needed light on the exceedingly persistent patience of our enemy, one who is just about ready to seize control of a nuclear power.

It’s not like it’s a secret.

It’s more like, if we don’t open our eyes, perhaps there’s really not a big, scary monster in our closet.

It could, after all, be a really bad dream. They seem so real sometimes, don’t they?

But we always wake up and go to work, don’t we?

We’re about to run out of the successful procrastination of our collective Snooze Button, I am afraid, Michael.

Michael,
I’ve been working on a post about this very subject for a couple of weeks and even though its still a few days from completion, I can offer a quote that I am using in it. It comes from Loren Eiseley’s book about Francis Bacon, The Man Who Saw Through Time. Any one who has ever wondered why there are so many great and accomplished scientists and physicians who are so profoundly mistaken about social and political matters needs to remember that, “Science exists only within a tradition of constant experimental investigation of the natural world. It demands that every hypothesis we formulate be subject to proof, whether in nature or in the laboratory, before we can accept its validity. Men, even scientists, find this type of thinking extremely difficult to sustain. In this sense science is not natural to man at all. It has to be learned, consciously practiced, stripped out of the sea of emotions, prejudices and wishes in which our daily lives are steeped. No man can long endure such rarified heights without descending to common earth. Even the professional scientist frequently confines such activity to a specific discipline and outside of it indulges in illogical prejudices.”
In other words, just because a man is capable of rational thought that doesn’t mean that that is what he is doing at any given moment.

It’s an interesting sidelight that Holmes was invented by a doctor; probably he identified equally with Sherlock and Moriarty. With Watson taking up the balance.

Societies will always have true-believing fanatics. The key is to build a culture upon an idea so anabolic that it will have the effect of isolating the fanatic (Ted Kaczinski in his isolated shack in the U.S., the solo murderer of Gandhi in India). The fanatic, if isolated, is unable to recruit an army of fellow-’disaffecteds’ (”alienated” in Hegel and Marx; “anomie” in Durkheim; “disenchanted” in Weber), so that his deadliness results in the deaths of only dozens or hundreds of innocents, not thousands or millions.

Fanaticism is not a matter of poverty or altruistic profession: Castro and al-Zawahiri are medical doctors; Ahmadinejad and bin Laden are engineers. To defeat the fanatic into killing as few as possible, isolate him so that he cannot recruit an army of fellow-travelers. And the very best method of isolating the fanatic is to build a society based upon the very thing which the fanatic, whether religious or secular, whether nationalist or socialist, fears most: Freedom for everyone.

When ‘freedom’ is taught as a universal moral philosophy in the departments of philosphy at the major universities of the world, we will be pragmatically building societies which can endure the rare, but still too frequent, acts of the homicidal/suicidal (”duocidal”) fanatic.

Some scholars around the world who share that goal–the inquiry of freedom as a universal moral philosophy–can be found at http://www.philohr.org.

Isolate the fanatic, by teaching everyone what he fears most.

“World freedom achieves world peace.”

Dear Dr ledeen
many students and political activists has been arrested today in Tehran in front of the Polytechnic university.

Reminds me of Zionist Squirrels detained at the border of Iraq and Iran for spying…

Dear Dr. Ledeen,

I think “Faster Please” has passed its “sell-by” date. Your pithy expression made sense when it looked like the Bush Administration was taking its Axis of Evil rhetoric - and the idea of regime change - seriously, and only needed to hurry up and get on with it. But by now it doesn’t look like President Bush has another regime change in him.

In what I can only term a “Condschluss”, the State Department seems to have annexed the Oval Office, at least in terms of the handling of Iran. When the Iranian Mullahs look toward the White House they see George W. Bush not so much as a lame duck as a rubber duck, a child’s toy floating harmlessly on the surface of the bath-water, nothing for the Iranian regime to be concerned about.

So, I would decommission “Faster Please” and replace it with something else, perhaps something more in tune with realistic expectations of the future, something like “Hey Dude, which way is the fallout shelter?”

ML:

I do love “Condschluss,” altho in retrospect that probably took place during the 1980 campaign, if not before.

The phrase “Faster, Please” is actually more appropriate today than before, even though nobody in the White House, Pentagon or Foggy Bottom is inclined to do much of anything about Iran. But we often have unpleasant choices forced upon us, and life is so full of unexpected developments that I’m not about to stop sounding my little warning bell.

I think you may be onto something here regarding the hazards of fictional doctors. Once on Bewitched, Doctor Bombay transported Darren to the top of Mount Everest. (Good thing Samantha was able to intervene!) And don’t even get started about Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie.

Only a fool wouldn’t be wary of all those smarty-pants liberals with all their book learning.

The doctors and others Islamists must be stopped anywhere there is a potential for them to advance their dark ages ideas and Islainsts / Khomeinists and Taliban ideologies.
Free world should not be tricked by these Islaimst animals.

There might be a solution for all these problems created by backward forces (Khomeinists / Talibans). The solution is to cut their linkage and linkages is only the Khomeinist regime in Iran which must be dismantled and teared. Utilizing the methods implemented to defeat Nazis in Europe (the main advocator of anti-human and radicalism at the time), and then go after Japanese was the right approach. At the present time the main advocator of radicalism, anti-human, anti-civilization is Khomeinists regime in Iran. Then we scan and should finish up the rest of Islamists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. That would be the most important contribution to the man kind at the present time.

Note:
I was watching History Channel Classroom today (7/12/07 @6:30am).
General De Gaulle said:
“Without America Europe would be destroyed and had no future.
Long Live United Sates of America”.
In the same program it was demonstrated how welcome GIs were in Germany at the end of the WII.,

We should create the same situation for GIs in Iran as was the case in WWII Europe. Iranian people are waiting to greet American GIs and return the glory to American. Destroying Mullahs in Iran would create the same situation (as was in Europe) once more. Treat Iran as Europe during (WWII), then go after what would be left of Islamist terrorists (if any) just like what we did in Pacific after Europe was freed of Nazism. Then watch and see how all entities and governments try to come to term with all issues including Israelis issues. However, at the present time and mostly due to strong backing of a so-called government (Mullacracy regime), all Islamists are glued together.

The European strategy prolonging the life of Mullucracy, Islamists, and Khomeinists / Talibans just to make US weaker and for economic reasons is actually an anti-Semitic strategy. European strategy to partition Iran is an old English plan and is doomed and Israelis must not participate in it. Stronger Iran with a free system will benefit Israelis much more economically and helps to maintain peace as well, so less Israelis are killed as a result. Current European strategy would be destruction of civilization in the Europe and beyond, more killing and war in the ME including Arabs and Israelis, and radicalization of ME where Jews would not be able to live unless they adopt the same standard of living as their poor and backward neighbors. Even if they do it would not be enjoyable. Imagine having a nice room with a fountain in the middle of a dumping ground. Is that how Israelis and Europeans want to live in the future? Among garbage?

The only solution is adoption US policies. That is to promote freedom, and free market economy. This would be along the line with development of the New World. Old European policies are doomed, anti-human, racist, and anti-Semitic. More Economic competitions and less military actions would be the order of future whether European want it or not. European policy is to hold the line as exist, and let Islamists to live longer, just because Islamists can damage American image more than European. How stupid is that way of thinking? Some might say having less military action and more economic competitions is an Israelis plan, since Jews are historically smarter in implementing economic plans. Well even if that is the case, then be it. Still human race and civilization as a whole will benefit more.

Please note that I said some strategic, surgical, and specific military action such as destroying Khomeinie’s Tomb, Feyzeeye Madrase in Qom, Pasdaran, and information ministry headquarters in Iran can be considered as such targets. Execution of such strategy instead of destroying infrastructure of Iran in a much wider war, would please Iranian people and prove to them that US and its friends (whoever is brave enough to help) are only after the regime not Iran and its people. How about that strategy for a change?

All one has to do to appreciate the fact that intelligence has little to do with morality is to recall the abundance of doctors in leadership positions in Hitler’s Third Reich, starting with the good Dr. Goebbels, or the kindly Dr. Mengele. And, let’s not forget all of those looney Nazi professors and archaeologists who were scouring the planet for traces of their genetically superior Aryan roots.