More Lawful Islamists AND Stupid Terrorists?

Submitted by Alex (United States), Oct 31, 2012 at 11:25

How does Dr. Pipes link (if at all) the two countervailing phenomena he has conscientiously documented on his blogs in recent years, those of some Islamists taking a careful, legal approach to finite goals over the long term in imposing Shari'ah law within an established government system, and that of Islamist terrorists making poor and simple mistakes in carrying out their attacks?

I think there must be more involved than the relative intelligence or sophistication of those in these two respective categories to explain this difference. In my humble opinion, the violent Islamists in Dr. Pipes' category 1 in this article do not break laws to impose an order of new laws (or to impose a "Medieval" one, whatever that means--the use of this descriptor seems an ahistorical way to describe a modern totalitarian movement to me), but rather seek to spread a general culture of criminality and disorder using Islamic justifications.

Paradoxical as it may seem, I think that translates into breaking even the standards they may know for carrying out a successful terrorist attack. It should not be so hard to imagine that those who are so eager to commit suicide bombings might also take the more modest step of self-destructing professionally. Some psychologists think criminals want to get caught (Ramzi Yousef left signatures on his attacks, such as using the date of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as a date on one of his fake IDs).

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