Agnes Heller Explains the Jihadis

Agnes Heller argues that the most common explanations for Radical Islamism are mere fantasies.

1) Islamism is not a rebellion of the poor against the rich.

2) Islamism is not the losers against the winners of globalization.

3) Islamism is not a natural reaction against American imperialism.

Instead she argues:

"The people behind global terror are themselves global capitalists, just like Hitler was supported by German industrialists and financiers. Anti-capitalism merely serves as a slogan to direct massive resentment against the rich and to wage a racist or religious war. Many of them are frustrated intellectuals – young people who want to be remarkable in a very unremarkable world, with big ambitions but little talent, or whose careers were hindered for other reasons."

Interesting. It certainly serves to describe many of the leaders of the movement, but the same could be said of many revolutionary movements of the past. Wasn't Lenin, for instance, plugging into the same sort of thing with his "vanguard of the revolution" crap?

Read the original in Polish here.

English excerpts here.