Inside the world view of 'islamists'...

I think this quote is an AMAZING little mind bender. i have never before come across something which so profoundly reveals the possible reasons underpinning a world view, and challenges us to think about them seriously.

OH! please note... 'islamist' doesn't mean 'muslim'... 'islamism' is a problematic and controversial term, but one which is typically taken to mean the adherence to the dictates of Islam in a way which is fundamentalist, extremist and potentially damaging. in *no way* does this article purport to equate all muslims to fundamentalist or extremist 'islamists'.

This article was written in response to the rage of Americans after 9/11, asking "what have we ever done to them? why would they want to harm us?". well, read it and see what you think...

"If by this stage we still find it hard to get inside the world-view of
Islamists, it may be helpful to listen to these words of an American,
Paul Kennedy, writing in the Wall Street Journal in October 2001 (a month
after 9/11), which represent a powerful appeal by an American to
fellow-Americans to ‘see ourselves as others see us’:

How do we appear to them, and what would it be like were our places in
the world reversed… Suppose that there existed today a powerful, unified
Arab-Muslim state that stretched from Algeria to Turkey and Arabia – as
there was 400 years ago, the Ottoman Empire. Suppose this unified
Arab-Muslim state had the biggest economy in the world, and the most
effective military. Suppose by contrast this United States of ours had
split into 12 or 15 countries, with different regimes, some conservative and
corrupt. Suppose that the great Arab-Muslim power had its aircraft
carriers cruising off our shores, its aircraft flying over our lands, its
satellites watching us every day. Suppose that its multinational corporations had
reached into North America to extract oil, and paid the corrupt,
conservative governments big royalties for that. Suppose that it
dominated all international institutions like Security Council and the IMF.
Suppose that there was a special state set up in North America fifty years ago,
of a different religion and language to ours, and the giant Arab-Muslim power
always gave it support. Suppose the Colossus state was bombarding us
with cultural messages, about the status of women, about sexuality, that we
found offensive. Suppose it was always urging us to change, to modernize, to
go global, to follow its example. Hmmm…. In those conditions, would not
many Americans steadily grow to loathe that Colossus, wish it harm? And
perhaps try to harm it? I think so."