where's me country?

I Dont Know What to Make of This

12.23.2005

Over at opendemocracy is a very interesting, though odd, article on Osama Bin Laden arising from the recent publication of all his statements in English and in full to facilitate the study of islamism.

Personally Im not sure what to make of it, i cant decide whether it is saying he is not that bad a guy or that he is bad but we have him all wrong.

---

Movements like al-Qaida represent our global interrelatedness by such acts, in which any one person can be related to any other through schemes of violence or virtue. Indeed these acts function like shadows of our global interrelatedness, which possesses as yet no political form of its own.

Osama bin Laden’s Islam represents this global predicament in the fragmentation of its own history, geography and doctrine. His war against the west represents the same global predicament by making possible a universal reciprocity of violence, which has replaced failed forms of freedom or democracy as the new currency of global equality.

---

I am heading off now but this one needs a second reading. My first reaction was that it no longer matters what Bin Ladens politics are since he is now a figure-head rather than il duce. Im also rather dubious about attempts to soften out his politics, and certianly those of the Islamic movement are not dictated by Bin Laden. Still il give a second read later and post later. Let me know what you make of it.

RR
Categories: Terrorism, Politics

This entry was posted on 12.23.2005 at 12/23/2005 02:10:00 p.m.. There are . If you want, you can leave your own response by clicking here. You may also send this post to a friend of yours via email, or bookmark it for yourself by using icons below;