Looking for the roots of terrorism

[ryanman]

"France has about 7.5% Muslims and [they make] up to 60–75% of the prison population. It’s a very similar situation to black youth in the United States."


Yuuuup here we go with the White Guilt , typical lefty drivel.

He was quite obviously talking about proportional representation, not justification. The very next sentence that you conveniently omitted says

" The difference is here’s an ideology that appeals to them "

So he is not making the lazy comparison that you accuse him of. It's extremely frustrating that so many people, even in this thread, are so conditioned in their own thinking that they are seemingly uninterested in facts or insights gained by someone who is actively trying to find some answers.

This is an academic with posts in both France and America, not a politician with some axe to grind. It's not "White Guilt" or "Lefty Drivel". He is hardly excusing the behaviour of people when he call them "low lifes" and "bad guys" is he?

The conclusions he draws are not the obvious ones and it's uncomfortable reading I get that. He is not toeing the government lie that they are highly trained commando like units, he is pointing out the unpredictable and often random nature of such a threat. These are often very stupid ignorant people, something he confirms when he relays that fact that many would rather shoot him than answer his questions.

But no let's not bother reading the report or examining tired, pattern based predicatable ways of thinking. Lets accuse him of having "an agenda" because then we can carry on thinking in the same comfy, flawed way.

I know many people innately distrust academics ( particularly when evidence they use goes against their own belief system) and love to hang on to simple ideas, but there is little point discussing anything if all you want to do is have your own opinion verified and have no room to contemplate new ways of thinking about a problem.

Sorry Beanz, you won't get a discussion on the article. The word 'terrorism' is in the subject line. That means the thread is about repeating thoughts on 'Terrorism'. I can already predict what several other people are likely to be in here saying shortly. None of which will be a discussion of any of the points raised. It's anti-intellectualism.

The fact that he refers to them as 'bad-guys' and 'low-lifes' and (rightly) points out that these guys are mostly idiots won't make a difference.