Jihad by any other name

It's human nature to want to be part of something bigger than yourself. Who wants to die having been just one out of billions, a drop in the ocean of human history?

Much better to try and create something--a work of art, a big family, a name--that will last long after your bones have returned to earth.

Of course, if you're not that talented, you can always glom onto someone else. Attach your name to something they did; in some way, being mentioned in an Oscar acceptance speech must count for something, right?

But what if you don't even know anyone talented? No sustaining skills of your own, no friends worth much... then what?

Well, then you're in trouble. You're stuck with waking up, eating, sleeping; repeat until dying. Looking for love, maybe finding it maybe not--but in any case, living on only in the fading memories of a few.

Unless, of course, you can latch onto some history-shaking group that'll have you. Then, if nothing else, you can die with a smile on your face, knowing that for a few moments in time you were part of something--perhaps even a vital cog?--that truly mattered. That will never be forgotten.

If you lived in 1930s Germany, for example, maybe you'd have joined the Nazis. Heck, they promised a Reich that would last for a 1,000 years. True, they were a bit bloody, but given that you probably defined your victims as 'other' at best, sub-human at worse, what matter a few million pounds of flesh if you could cleanse Christiandom of dirty Jews forever?

Likewise, if you found yourself in the American South in the 1950s, you could just don your white robes and go hunting blacks in the dead of the night to get away from the 9 to 5, yes sir no sir grind. A few lengths of rope, some torches and a bunch of your closest white friends and poof, you were a force to be reckoned with--not to mention master of your domain for a few hours to boot.

But, what now? In a world of 6 billion? What to do to make your mark, go down in history as a savior of your people, rise above the mundane day-to-day?

Well, as the Washington Post's David Ignatius writes in an insightful column, Young Anger Foments Jihad, for many the answer seems clear. Let loose the dogs of war and march forth to defend our 'civilization'! If we don't get them first you can bet your last dollar they'll surely come get us!

Lock up the women and children, this isn't a sight fit for their eyes. Above all, remember the overiding justice of our cause--you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs, and brother, we sure are out to make ourselves a doozy of an omelette, one that they're going write odes about and sing songs to for generations.

During Monday's commemorations of the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, I found myself wondering what the world will look like on the 10th anniversary, or the 20th. Will the catastrophe that began five years ago become a permanent feature of life -- a "long war" that won't end for many decades? Or will it gradually wane with time?

President Bush made an emphatic case for the long war in his speech to the nation Monday night. In his account, America is locked not simply in a war but in a meta-conflict, "the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation." He described a global enemy of Muslim fanatics that imprisons women in their homes, beats impious men and attacks Americans at will. I admire Bush's toughness, but I disagree with his analysis

As it happened, I spent the hours before Bush's speech moderating a discussion of the meaning of Sept. 11, which was hosted by the World Affairs Council here. One of the panelists was Marc Sageman, a man who comes to these issues with an unusual background -- he was a CIA case officer in Pakistan and then became a psychiatrist. I found in his comments a similarly unusual clarity.

Sageman argues in his book, "Understanding Terror Networks," that we are facing something closer to a cult network than an organized global adversary. Like many cults through history, the Muslim terrorists thrive by channeling and perverting the idealism of young people. As a forensic psychiatrist, he analyzed data on about 400 jihadists. He found that they weren't poor, desperate sociopaths but restless young men who found identity by joining the terrorist underground. Ninety percent came from intact families; 63 percent had gone to college; 75 percent were professionals or semi-professionals; 73 percent were married. ...

What transformed these young Sunni Muslim men was the fellowship of the jihad and the militant role models they found in people such as Osama bin Laden. The terrorist training camps in Afghanistan were a kind of elite finishing school --

Sageman likened it to getting into Harvard. The Sept. 11 hijackers weren't psychotic killers; none of the 19 had criminal records. In terms of their psychological profiles, says Sageman, they were as healthy as the general population.

The implication of Sageman's analysis is that the Sunni jihadism of al-Qaeda and its spinoff groups is a generational phenomenon. Unless new grievances spawn new recruits, it will gradually ebb over time. In other words, this is a fire that will gradually burn itself out unless we keep pumping in more oxygen. Nothing in Sageman's analysis implies that America should be any less aggressive in defending itself against terrorism. But he does argue that we should choose our offensive battles wisely and avoid glamorizing the jihadist network further through our rhetoric or actions. ...

There's another small detail about Iran that strikes me as relevant, now that I'm back home. As I explained in an earlier column, Tehran is a city of crazy drivers who nearly collide at every intersection. But the police are quite strict about requiring seat belts -- something I don't often see in the Muslim world. Even fatalistic taxi drivers buckle up. Another surprise: When I was traveling last week from Tehran to the holy city of Qom, there were actually police on the highway with radar guns, stopping pilgrims who might be tempted to speed. And I'm told the new mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Qalibaf, who succeeded the rabble-rousing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has created a special hotline so people can call and get potholes filled and trash collected.

Now I submit to you: A nation that is wearing seat belts is probably not a mortal enemy of the United States.

This is a week when we remember, with horror, that there are dangerous killers in the Muslim world. But unless we make big mistakes, we should not find ourselves condemned to a permanent war, much less a clash of civilizations.

Matania's Battle of Acre painting of Richard the Lionheart via History UK.