Bribing the Taliban to stop: has it really come to this?

News flash from Roubini Global Economics:

New Afghan Plan: Financial Incentives to Give up Arms?

• At the London Conference on Afghanistan co-hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, it was decided that a fund would be set up to provide employment and housing to Taliban fighters that give up the fight. Conference participants are expected to pledge about US$500 million for the fund.

We're gonna bribe them so they stop fighting?

Um, er... I'm not sure what to say.  It would be great if it works.  But I think this proposal reflects a serious misunderstanding of who the Taliban fighters are.  Part of their zeal in this battle is their utter disdain for the West and its materialist/capitalist ways.  The notion that cash will make them lay down their weapons seems absurd.  It will only serve to reinforce their notion that Westerners worship money and are willing to abandon any cause to acquire more money.  It's like trying to make amends with your vegetarian wife by inviting her to dinner at Al's Steakhouse. 

Besides, don't you think that anybody that accepts this offer will be considered a traitor in the eyes of the Taliban?  How long do you think traitors will survive?  I think the odds are pretty good that they would be killed and subsequently blown up (just to be doubly sure).

This plan is unfortunately doomed to fail.  The Taliban will probably spit on the letter of offer.

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Two Men Arrested in Probe of New York Terror Plot

Read about the latest Islamic terrorist plot.  As you can see, airplanes are not the only places where security needs to pay attention.

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Naming the evil of terrorism

This video is so politically incorrect, yet so accurate on most levels.

Disclaimer to protect myself from Human Rights Commissions (normal people need not read this paragraph):  I hereby solemnly declare that I do not harbour any hatred or anger towards any religion or religious group, especially not Islam or Muslims.  I do not advocate any form of violence, hatred or discrimination against Muslims.  I am simply concerned by the statements made by Muslims themselves to the effect that they support terrorist acts.  I am therefore exploring the implications of their position on the public good of Canadians and the world.

Canadian terror suspect arrested in Chicago; Danish police stop Muslim terrorist

The attacks keep coming.  We live in dangerous times.  God help us.

Danish police said on Saturday they shot and wounded a Somali man with al Qaeda links when he tried to break into the home of a cartoonist whose 2005 caricatures of Prophet Mohammad sparked global Muslim outrage. (Source)

In a separate report, we learn that a Canadian Muslim has been arrested in Chicago for allegedly helping plot a terrorist attack against the same Danish newspaper that published those cartoons of Mohammed. Story here.

Where are the so-called "moderate" Muslims to denounce these terrorists?Surely, the majority of Muslims oppose terrorism, so why don't the speak up and talk some sense into the minority?



Disclaimer to protect myself from Human Rights Commissions (normal people need not read this paragraph):  I hereby solemnly declare that I do not harbour any hatred or anger towards any religion or religious group, especially not Islam or Muslims.  I do not advocate any form of violence, hatred or discrimination against Muslims.  I am simply concerned by the statements made by Muslims themselves to the effect that they support terrorist acts.  I am therefore exploring the implications of their position on the public good of Canadians and the world.
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Concerns about Islam: Part 3

Disclaimer to protect myself from Human Rights Commissions (normal people need not read this paragraph):  I hereby solemnly declare that I do not harbour any hatred or anger towards any religion or religious group, especially not Islam or Muslims.  I do not advocate any form of violence, hatred or discrimination against Muslims.  I am simply concerned by the statements made by Muslims themselves to the effect that they support terrorist acts.  I am therefore exploring the implications of their position on the public good of Canadians and the world.

In the second article of this series, we saw that a large proportion of Muslims living in European countries support terrorist acts.  But Muslims are only a small part of the population, right?  Wrong.  In the four countries we examined, the Muslims supporting terrorist acts totalled more than 2.1 million people.  And that was just four countries.

The situation will become more preoccupying in the future due to demographics.  The vast majority of immigrants into Europe are Muslims.  Muslims already living in Europe are having way more children than other groups.  So the share of the population represented by Muslims is growing rapidly.

I used to be concerned about the USSR being a threat to world peace, but they disintegrated.  While Russia is still unstable, I'm not all that worried. 

I also used to think that China was a big threat to world peace.  They're still communist and have nukes too.  They are also growing very rich and influential.  But China's history has generally not involved invading neighbouring countries.  They have been relatively peaceful in that sense and their current ambitions

Shooting at Fort Hood raises fresh questions about Muslims: Part 2

Disclaimer to protect myself from Human Rights Commissions (normal people need not read this paragraph):  I hereby solemnly declare that I do not harbour any hatred or anger towards any religion or religious group, especially not Islam or Muslims.  I do not advocate any form of violence, hatred or discrimination against Muslims.  I am simply concerned by the statements made by Muslims themselves to the effect that they support terrorist acts.  I am therefore exploring the implications of their position on the public good of Canadians and the world.

In part 1 of this series, I presented the result of an opinion survey conducted among Muslims living in the U.S.  The results showed that 13% of Muslims living in America, or approximately 305,500 people, support the use of suicide bombings and other violence against civilians.  Among those under 30 years old, support for such attacks on civilians was 26%.  That's very disturbing.  I'm sure it causes many a sleepless night for law-enforcement officials in the U.S.

Today I will be presenting further survey results conducted in other countries.  They are even scarier. 

You may be aware that Muslims represent a larger share of the populatoin in European countries than here in North America.  The Pew Research Center, the same group that did the aforementioned study for the U.S., also conducted surveys in major four European nations in a report published in June 2006. They asked the same quesiton as in the U.S. study, i.e. whether it was ever justified to conduct suicide bombings or other attacks against civilian targets. 

Christmas terrorist attack: a real miracle

Disclaimer to protect myself from Human Rights Commissions (normal people need not read this paragraph):  I hereby solemnly declare that I do not harbour any hatred or anger towards any religion or religious group, especially not Islam or Muslims.  I do not advocate any form of violence, hatred or discrimination against Muslims.  I am simply concerned by the statements made by Muslims themselves to the effect that they support terrorist acts.  I am therefore exploring the implications of their position on the public good of Canadians and the world.

By now, most of you have heard about the despicable failed terrorist attack that a man tried to perpetrate against the American people on Christmas Day.  You won't find me running for cover behind politically correct platitudes.  I'll call a spade a spade:  he was a Muslim terrorist.  Period.

Here's a brief summary of the key facts:

• A man named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boards a plane in Nigeria en route for Detroit.  He's carrying explosives, but nobody seems to detect them.
• The plane makes a stop-over in Amsterdam.  Nobody notices the explosives.
• As the plane is approaching Detroit, the man tries to detonate his explosives, which were strapped to his body.
• The chemicals did not explode but rather caught fire, which severely burned the terrorist but didn't do much other damage­.
• The man is now under arrest and claims that he was sent by al-Qaida.

I think this is a real Christmas miracle.  The guy had succeeded in circumventing all the security checks and inspections.  Although his name had been put on an international watch list by his father one month earlier because his dad thought that his son had gotten to extreme in his religious views (kudos to the dad), somehow that didn't show up on the computer screen when he checked in.  He had flown on two planes for many hours without anybody noticing a thing. He was home free.  He even managed to pull the trigger, so to speak, to detonate the bomb.  Somewhere in his distorted extremist mind, he must have been filled with some whack-job glee, exhilaration and pride of a job well done.  Yet the bomb didn't blow because God didn't let it happen.  Praise God!

God doesn't prevent every evil, as we've witnessed so often in our lives, not the least of which was the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  Why does God allow evil?  Because He intends on making an even greater good come from it.  Remember that God doesn't sit in an ivory tower watching us suffer.  The stepped up to the plate Himself and let us crucify Him.  He suffered evil too.  In fact, it was the greatest evil of all time:  deicide, the killing of God in His human nature.  Yet He brought the greatest good out of it: salvation for all humanity.  The pattern is repeated in our lives.

Somebody once wrote:  "All men are born to live; one man was born to die."  As we look at Christ in the creche during this Christmas time, it is worthwhile to remember that religious artists over the centuries have often painted the birth of our Lord with a crucifix hanging in the manger.  In other cases, the baby Jesus is wrapped in burial clothes (see right).  This is precisely to illustrate the key part of His mission on Earth.

Nothing has changed in 2,000 years.  God still allows suffering in some circumstances because He's capable of making a greater good come from it, as long as we cooperate with His plan.  We might never see that good.  In fact, most of the time we don't see it.  It can frequently take the form of grace brought down from Heaven thanks to someone patiently offering up their suffering.  This is extremely powerful.  Countless souls can be given the grace of repentance and conversion if you offer up your sufferings patiently in order to obtain grace.  Don't let your suffering go to waste. 

Follow St. Paul's example:  "I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church." (Col 1:24)  Many Protestants don't understand this verse.  What could possibly be lacking in Christ's suffering?  Catholics and Protestants agree that Christ's sufferings were more than sufficient and complete to expiate the sins of the whole world.  So what's missing?  Our sufferings are missing.  If you read the Bible, you'll realize that God doesn't want to carry out His will unilaterally.  He makes us partipants and cooperators in His plan of salvation.  Consider:

• Christ is the true King of kings.  Yet, Christians are called a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9) and are promised that they will reign with Christ (2 Tim 2:12).  So He lets us participate in His royalty and priesthood.
• Christ is the true Teacher.  Yet, through the Holy Spirit, many Christians are given the gift of teaching in order to build up the bretheren (Eph 4:11).
• Christ is the true mediator and advocate before the Father on behalf of humanity.  Yet, Christ mandates Christians to pray for one another and promises to hear our prayers (Matt 7:7-11; Matt 18:19; Matt 21:22).  We therefore participate in this role of mediator/advocate.  He goes as far as to make some grace conditonal on our efforts (Gal 6:9; James 4:3)
• Likewise, Christ is the Holy Redeemer of mankind through His Cross.  But he asks us to cooperate in the redemption by uniting our suffering to His in order to bring down grace. That's the meaning of Colossians 1:24.  So please play your part!

Also keep in mind that God is still busy preventing lots of evil from occurring.  You never hear about those instances because they never happened.  You might have died in a car crash a couple of years ago, but God prevented it from happening so you never noticed. 

This past Christmas Day, we learned of one such instance where God prevented it.  Let us give thanks to Him. 

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Shooting at Fort Hood raises fresh questions about Muslims: Part 1

Disclaimer to protect myself from Human Rights Commissions (normal people need not read this paragraph):  I hereby solemnly declare that I do not harbour any hatred or anger towards any religion or religious group, especially not Islam or Muslims.  I do not advocate any form of violence, hatred or discimination against Muslims.  I am simply concerned by the statements made by Muslims themselves to the effect that they support terrorist acts.  I am therefore exploring the implications of their position on the public good of Canadians and the world.

This is not an easy post to write.  It will contain facts that some people will consider "politically incorrect", "hateful", "xenophobic" or "intolerant".  I can understand that opinions can be designated with such adjectives, but facts shouldn't be subject to censorship just because they raise difficult questions that people would rather avoid.  Catholics are called to be courageous and to face the facts.  So let's get with it.

The shooting at Fort Hood has re-opened the discussion about whether Islam is truly a "religion of peace" as some scholars claim.  First of all, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to all the families of the victims.  

The media as reported many disturbing facts about the shooting at Fort Hood.  The shooter was a Muslim.  He shouted "God is great" as he started emptying cartridges on unsuspecting bystanders.  He had some sort of connection with some shady extremist Muslims, although the extent of the connection is not entire clear.  He also seemed to be upset with the war in Afghanistan and about the U.S. killing his brother Muslims over there.

As an economist who has conducted a lot of research and analysis, I don't get too excited about isolated cases such as this.  Researchers call that "anecdotal evidence".  It's very risky to generalize from anecdotal evidence because it's just one case.  For example, some people will argue that cigarettes don't harm you because their uncle Billy-Ray-Bob smoked since he was 15 years old and nevertheless lived until the ripe old age of 94. Although I'm very happy for Billy-Ray-Bob, I wouldn't generalize from one example.  Researchers need lots of data gathered from a big enough sample to enable more accurate generalizations.  That's why, for example, when you read in the newspaper about the latest political poll, you will rarely find a survey that questioned less than 1,000 people. 

That's enough statistical talk for now.  Back to Fort Hood.  Just because one Muslim shot all these people, I

Muslims somehow become the victims after Fort Hood shooting

Disclaimer to protect myself from Human Rights Commissions (normal people need not read this paragraph):  I hereby solemnly declare that I do not harbour any hatred or anger towards any religion or religious group, especially not Islam or Muslims.  I do not advocate any form of violence, hatred or discimination against Muslims.  I am simply concerned by the statements made by Muslims themselves to the effect that they support terrorist acts.  I am therefore exploring the implications of their position on the public good of Canadians and the world.

It's the paradox of political correctness.  A Muslim man kills 13 innocent people in a shooting rampage in Fort Hood (he started shouting "God is great!" in Arabic as he opened fire) and now the media are treating Muslims as victims.  That's not a typo.  The media seem more worried about potential violence that might be committed against Muslims in retaliation for the shooting, than about the 13 real dead people. 

Read this great editorial on the topic by Father Raymond J. de Souza in today's National Post.

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