Take a good look at who is behind the extremism

Submitted by Jason (United States), Nov 17, 2012 at 09:33

Prashant, you need to take a good look at who is behind the extremism. In every case you listed, there is a small local minority that is adhering to an ARAB-defined interpretation of Islam. This interpretation is inherently extremist. In addition, they are backed by extremist outsiders from the ARAB world. The best example of this was Afghanistan. The Taliban is a tiny minority. The only way it maintained power was with the backing of Al Qeada, which originally was an almost exclusively Saudi organization. In just about every other location you cite, the ARAB outsiders equal or outnumber the local extremists. The one big exception is the Nation of Islam in the USA, which is Islamic in name only.

This is no different that all of the varied terror groups of the '70s and '80s. Whether it was the Provisional IRA, Red Brigades, Red Army Faction, Bader Meinhoff, etc. They all had one thing in common. They were funded from Moscow, through Syria. Today, the funding source is a bit more diverse: the ARAB world (though most still comes from Saudi Arabia). That money is now funneled through Iran as well as Syria (who is now facing the results of too many years of supporting terrorists).

All you have to do to figure this out is to follow Bob Woodward's mantra from the Watergate scandal in the '70s: Follow the Money.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".