Al Qaeda: The Invisible Enemy, PART I

This is an article I’ve been thinking about writing for a long time. Why’s that, you ask. Well, whenever I’m inclined to talk about a hot button social issue that I (actually) know little about, I usually shudder up, in fear that any semblance of my ignorance might shine through. But recently, I’ve changed my tune. Now I feel that this ignorance might be funny, in a way, and so long as my intentions are good, no harm no foul, right? If you disagree with me, though, you’ll probably end up thinking my intentions are indecent, and in reality maybe they are. I also realize this is no laughing matter, and please grasp this, when I say “funny” I’m talking about the comedic defense mechanism that humans turn to in times of great peril, in times of tremendous grief. I’m not making light of terrorism or war; I hope it doesn’t come across that way.

So here’s the paradox that we’re working with: an under educated author, a fearsome social issue (terrorism) and the allusion that, somehow, this is all supposed to be funny. The religion of Ethics is something I obviously don’t believe in.

Let’s work with this premise, even if it’s entirely untrue, and I’m not saying that it’s not: Al Qaeda isn’t real. Certainly, there a good number of what some may call ultra liberals, or even conspiracy theorist (gasp), who feel that Al Qaeda is far from the hyper-organized, multi-continent menace that our government has presented them as. I don’t think anyone would disagree with the presupposition that fundamental Islamists in general are not of one, structured consortium. Most would agree that fundamental Islam is a loose entity, a describer or dogma for terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and many others.

So let’s do a little presupposing of our own, just for fun, and say that this distinction for fundamental Islam applies to the smaller offshoots as well, the terrorist element themselves, in this case Al Qaeda. If you think about it, or if you don’t think about it (I guess it depends on how much you know to begin with), Al Qaeda is more of an idea than a “terrorist” group.

Now, Joe Public just said to himself, “Jeff, what’s with the quotation marks around terrorism. Terrorism is hardly a quotation-worthy noun.” Joey P. might even call me “bleeding heart” or some other archaic name for a pussy liberal. He might even say, “How dare you make a mockery of an issue like this?” Well, I’d have to respectively disagree with this assertion, on both counts. In fact, I’d say that we should always present terrorism this way, lest we further distort the already skewed image of what “terrorism” really is. I’m not making light of anything, but rather forcing myself to look at a horrific reality through the uncomfortable lens of the microscope of truth.

And that right there was a sentence that any conservative would quickly write off as neo-hippie, idealist psychobabble, and I wouldn’t wholeheartedly disagree with them, but semantics aside, let’s look at some truth. The truth is that before 9/11, and in spite of what our government would have liked us believe, the greatest threat in terms of terrorism in this nation was an oft disregarded and misinterpreted phenomena; I’m talking about a dirty little secret, the indefinable menace that is domestic terrorism.

TO BE CONTINUED