Saturday, October 28, 2006

Arafat and the Cynical Uses of Islam

Joel Mowbray critiques Condoleezza Rice's muddled approach to the Palestinian Arabs. In the process, he makes an interesting point on how Yasser Arafat used Islamic indoctrination to overcome the limitaions of the PLO and "breed a new generation of terrorists":
Palestinian society was Islamicized by none than famously secular Yasser Arafat. Once he was given the reins following the 1993 Oslo accords, Arafat instituted an aggressive program of Islamic indoctrination, primarily through the schools and the media. Palestinian Authority-run schools placed far greater emphasis on Islam than ever before, and every Friday PA television still broadcasts sermons of fiery and bitterly anti-Semitic imams.

The indoctrination worked. In a March 2005 poll by the Palestinian Center for Research and Cultural Dialogue, almost 70 percent of Palestinians expressed preference for living under Islamic law. And a 2003 poll by Birzeit University revealed that nearly 80 percent support the notion of punishing a thief by amputating his hand.

Most observers, including many in the Israeli establishment, refuse to acknowledge the increasing Islamic nature of Palestinian society in large part because they cannot believe that a secular Arab nationalist could have implemented Islamic indoctrination. But Arafat did so out of necessity. The original Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorists had an inherent limitation, as the prospect of their own deaths was a deterrent. Arafat thus turned to Islam, which enabled him to breed a new generation of terrorists, who were far more effective than their wiser and better-trained predecessors for one simple reason: Not only were they not afraid to die, but they actually desired death.

It's not just the kids who have been brainwashed. To make sure parents don't follow normal instincts, PA-run broadcasts and newspapers have cynically used Islam to promote the culture of death. This pernicious propaganda campaign has been meticulously detailed by the invaluable Palestinian Media Watch, yet most foreign policy elites seem unaware of the changing face of Palestinian society.
Among those elites, of course, is Condoleezza Rice.
And many, many others.

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