Radical mindset

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Radical mindset

I just received an email from a service called Road90 saying that I had received a video from a friend called "The terrorist mindset." I clicked on the link and was taken to the video: The Terrorist Mindset.

No date or TV station was given. In fact, no information at all was given. The initial impression I got was that this video was recent. But the interviewer kept referring to President Bush and events as if from an earlier time. This irritated me because it appeared like one more attempt to mislead people from one side of this sorry mess. What's wrong with citing basic information like the time something happened?

Anyway, I looked it up. There is a Google video of this same interview: "The Terrorist Mindset", CNN video clip, which was uploaded September 29, 2006. There is only one comment as of this post, dated Mar 5, 2009. The commenter did not identify himself/herself. Here is the comment:

This is not a CNN video. It is a video made from the Comcast station in New Jersey, CN8. The station was shut down in November, 2008.

There are two misleading bits of information here.

(1) The upload makes it appear that this interview was a CNN production.

(2) The comment insinuates that this never appeared on CNN.

In both cases (and in the case of Road90), I get real weary. Facts are facts. A is A. When you give false or misleading information (or "strategic omissions") to the public, you ultimately discredit yourself. I personally will not trust any further information coming from Road90 without checking it first. That especially goes for the uploader Stax2001. I cannot do the same for the Google video uploader or commenter because they are both anonymous, but if they ever become identified, they both have earned my distrust.

Here are the facts. CN8 is the former brand name of the Comcast Network. I personally have watched many interviews aired on CNN that were produced by the Comcast Network. Just because the brand "CN8" was discontinued, this does not mean that the company folded.

Here is the video in question on Google video:

From what I have been able to find, this was first aired by CN8 on February 16, 2006, although I am unsure about the source of this info (a blog).

The interviewer is Greg Coy. Unfortunately, even he played at the game of presenting misleading information. For instance, he asked one of the guests (I think it was Shoebat, but I have to see the video again to be sure) why he had suddenly decided to come out against Islamist terrorism. He was promptly informed that the former terrorist had been speaking out in public for 17 years. This wasn't the only leading question. Frankly, because of this kind of misleading bias, I now distrust information coming from Greg Coy, although I do acknowledge that he did not edit out the correction. To that extent, he has my respect.

The three repentant Islamist terrorists are given below with links to Wikipedia articles on them.

Walid Shoebat

Ibrahim Abdullah

Zachariah Anani

There are controversies about them, but essentially these men have had terrible experiences with fanatical Islamism, so much so that they gave up Islam (and all of them embraced Christianity). Their witness alone is a powerful condemnation of the Islamist mindset. But the message is watered down because of all the misleading information surrounding them.

This is what I call the "radical mindset." A radical in this sense thinks that persuasion by lying or misleading is justified by a noble cause. The problem is that, ultimately, this fans the flames of violence because (1) no noble cause ever justifies lying to innocent people to hijack their minds, and (2) lying doesn't persuade any independent thinker in the long run. Once a person discovers that he has been intentionally misled, he distrusts that source. So the only way left to "persuade" that person is by violence.

Why do the radicals do that? I can only conclude that their belief in their cause is much stronger than their respect for the truth.

The truth is a powerful weapon, especially long-range. There is no reason not to use it if a cause is truly noble.

Michael

[Michelle]

Not surprised they converted to Christianity. Watch them become fanatical Christians. I don't know that people, once their manner of being is firmly established, ever change that much. It seems like fanatics are always fanatics, switching between different faiths. The point isn't the faith. The point is submerging one's identity in the sweep of a collective movement.