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Culture of Life v. Culture of Death
In “Club Bombers” Jim Robbins over at NRO explains why the London jihadists targeted a night club.
It is important to understand the contempt for life at the root of the jihadists’ ideology. Simply enjoying oneself is a capital offense.
This was illustrated in the planned attacks of the al Qaeda-connected “Crevice†gang. Five cell members were sentenced to life this April for plotting mass mayhem in London, in particular targeting nightclubs with fertilizer bombs. Surveillance audio captured one conversation on February 22, 2004 in which cell members Omar Khyam and Jawad Akbar discuss potential targets and methods.
JAWAD AKBAR: “You could get jobs like this, yeah, like for example the biggest nightclub in central London. Where now here, yeah, now no one can even turn around and say ‘Oh they were innocent,’ — those slags dancing around.â€
OMAR KHYAM: “If you got a job in a bar, yeah, or club, say the Ministry of Sound, what are you planning to do there then?â€
JAWAD AKBAR: “Blow the whole thing up.â€
OMAR KHYAM: “Right.â€
Their target was “those slags dancing around.†This tells us that their objectives are not simply political, they go much deeper than that. The jihad is not about Britain’s Iraq policy, not some form of revenge for lack of economic opportunity, but is rooted in a basic rejection of the human spirit as expressed in any life-affirming activity.
Like so many of our cultural fault lines, views on the war are largely informed by whether one embraces a “culture of life” vs. a “culture of death.” To reject the use of force (war) to protect innocent life, one must necessarily have a low view of life. To reject the use of the law (i.e., the use of force) to end abortion or prevent euthanasia, one must have a similarly low view of life.
Isn’t it interesting that, by and large, liberals who oppose restrictions on killing the innnocent, like in utero babies and the profoundly disabled, are the ones screaming to stop the killing of jihadists.
This struggle (the global war on terror) is not only one of life and death–it is life vs. death.