The Known Unknown

There are enough people in the world, linked as never before by Web and mobile applications and particularly by social media, who believe with every fiber of their bodies that their way is the only way, and that any and all opposition is deeply sinful and offensive to their interpretation of God. With nascent disaffection raised by skillful leaders and trainers to obsessive hatred, amplified by their marginalization of the humanity of anyone who does not share their belief, there are tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of willing “soldiers of God,” and hundreds of millions of sympathizers with whom a Robin Hood feeling about these soldiers truly resonates.

We’ve seen it in Christianity, from the Spanish Inquisition to the Salem Witch trials, but in today’s world, it is fundamentalist Islam that draws our focus. To those fomenting this notion of sequential, unexpected and devastating individual or small group killing and maiming efforts, every time someone discriminates against a Muslim (or someone who looks like one), whenever there is a law in any country that forbids or limits headcovering or religious symbols, whenever any primarily Christian nation fires upon or sends troops into Muslim lands, the skillful purveyors of hatred uses these events and feelings to draw even more recruits into the fold.

That Islam conveniently places the righteous into a giant waiting room upon their death, to await Judgment Day sometime at the end of the world… unless they die in defense of Islam (martyrdom), in which case they rise into perpetual bliss, life forever in Heaven… adds a level of tangible reward to dying for the cause. Training camps rise and fall in the Tribal Districts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen. They know how to build, carry and deploy bombs, handle sniper rifles, RPG rounds and assault weapons with deadly accuracy and to hurl grenades to maximize mayhem.

Al Shabab attacked an upscale mall in Nairobi recently. Shocking but news that is already fading from the public consciousness as life goes on. That terrorist organization has used social media, including a Twitter account that appears and disappears as events unfold, with complex spurts of exceptionally articulated, well-educated bursts of extraordinary prose as their mark. Probably not from native-born Somalis, experts suggest. Al Shabab has been very effective in recruiting the disaffected, often second generations from Muslim (particularly Somali) immigrants. The Somali community in Minneapolis-St. Paul seems to have placed some its children into this diabolical mix. Authorities are still trying to trace the voices to be sure.

Manchester and London, England have produced their share of these second generation immigrants and placed them into the religious battlefield. Rejected by the larger community around them, economically hopeless and seeking meaning for their lives, they are angry and easily drawn into the rhetoric of religious zeal laced with hatred and a sense of mission available in their communities or easily assessable online.

The targets are easily identifiable, misinformation drives their misplaced passion, and change with current events. A Danish cartoonist who denigrated their messiah, and anything Israeli, American or even just Western. For Boko Haram in Nigeria, it’s anything Christian. For Taliban, it’s anything that opposes their severe view of what human behavior must be like – but it particularly includes Christianity, things Western and anything from the apostate Shiite branch of Islam. For al Shabab, despite Ethiopia’s more strident attacks, Kenya’s involvement in southern Somalia combined with their relatively open society made them an easier target. That the Nairobi Westgate mall had Israeli owners made that venue a more delicious target.

The sinking economy, laced with polarization that keeps the mega-wealthy on top, the hostile and escalating reactions of the West to the symbols of Islam, the failure of the Arab Spring, the “American” wars in the Middle East, the collateral damage of drone attacks, the random acts of cruelty from Abu Ghraib to burning Qur’ans to murderous U.S. soldiers breaking into homes for random killing… all represent the litany of arguments that recruiters use to gather more suicide bombers, more soldiers of God, willing to go anywhere in the world their services are needed.

Even as Taliban take out civilian targets in Pakistan, shoot little girls in the head for proselytizing the “right” of girls and women to be educated and plant bombs at Shiite funerals and Christian churches during mass, to a vast majority of Pakistanis, there is secret admiration for these economically incorruptible forces… amidst the insidious and pervasive political corruption that defines modern Pakistan. They are viewed as pure of motive and spirit, even if the results are death and destruction, and too many Pakistanis naively believe that once the Americans leave Afghanistan, the problems will just subside. Higher-level politicos see a longer-term issue and are trying to work a shorter-term solution with the Taliban, whom they believe grew to their present size and power in Pakistan due to American intervention in the region. They may be Taliban, but they are “our” Taliban to most residents of this mostly Sunni nation.

What we have is pervasive and unstoppable zealots, growing in number, seeping beyond their native borders, often born, deeply disaffected, in Western countries. Death is just a transition to a better place. Al Qaeda’s influence has fallen in Iraq (but powerless Sunnis blast away at Shiite targets almost daily) but is rising in Yemen and Somalia. Local terrorist groups avail themselves of al Qaeda’s communications and perhaps their sponsored training facilities, but they increasingly act on their own, coordinating with al Qaeda when it suits them, but deploying on their own when there is a need. Al Qaeda will take credit of all of the above.

Nairobi, the Twin Towers, the Boston Marathon, U.S. embassies, Israel, trains in Spain… the list goes on and on. New targets will be added as the disaffected, with nothing in their eyes to lose, find ways to vent their ignorant anger across innocent lives in too many places around the world. We know there will be attacks, but we often don’t know when or where. It defines disaffection in the twentieth-first century. The known unknown.

Prepare! “In a new ‘worldwide caution’ issued [Sept. 25^th], the [U.S. Department of State] said it continued to be concerned about threats to U.S. citizens and interests in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It said attackers could use a variety of tactics, including suicide operations, assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings… It said potential targets could be high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas, shopping malls and other tourist destinations where Americans gather in large numbers.” Huffington Post, September 25^th. The terror continues.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we seem to have the uncanny ability to provide running fodder to these recruiters of those seeking to focus their need to inflict hatred, death and devastation.