Can the violence also be attributed to suppression of dissent in large parts of the Muslim world?
That suppression of dissent is a tradition instituted by the Prophet himself, who had a number of his critics murdered or executed. It is true that this suppression of dissent often remained in force when Muslim regimes turned secular and then turned against the Islamists themselves, witness Syria’s president Assad sr.’s bloody oppression of Islamic militancy, or Turkey’s outlawing the Islamist party. Why is the Muslim ire directed particularly against the US? Is it because the US has propped up authoritarian regimes in the Muslim world to secure its business interests? That is part of the reason. There is just no end to the brutality and stupidity of American foreign policy. But note that NATO’s bombing of Serbia has not led to any similar revenge operation by Serbs, only Islam was willing as well as able to do it. To what extent has the Palestine Question added to the anti-US sentiment? We cannot blame the US for failing to impose the perfect solution on the Middle East, for unfortun
