The Fallacy of Grievance-based Terrorism

From Melvin E. Lee writing for the Middle East Quarterly.

The fundamental premise of much scholarly examination and public discourse is that grievances with U.S. policies in the Middle East motivate Islamist terrorism. Such assumptions, though, misunderstand the enemy and its nature. In reality, the conflict is sparked not by grievance but rather by incompatibility between Islamist ideology and the natural rights articulated during the European Enlightenment and incorporated into U.S. political culture. Acquiescing to political grievances will not alter the fundamental incompatibility between Lockean precepts of tolerance and current interpretations of Islam: Only Islam's fundamental reform will resolve the conflict.

Mr Lee goes on to explain what a Muslim ambassador (Abdrahaman) relayed to our President.

All Christians are sinners in the context of the Qur'an and that it was a Muslim's "right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to enslave as many as they could take as prisoners." Islam gave great incentive to fighting infidels, Abdrahaman explained, because the Qur'an promised that making war against infidels ensured a Muslim paradise after death.

The President was Jefferson and he had this conversation with the Ambassador of Tripoli during the time of the First Barbary War (1801-1805).

While we as a nation and the world has changed significantly in the last 200 years, extremist Islam has not.

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