November
12, 2006: A good example, of how self-destructive Islamic radicalism is, can be
seen in the continuing campaign to stop polio vaccinations. Several years ago,
Islamic conservatives in Nigeria began urging parents to refuse polio
vaccinations for their children. Eventually, this thwarted the worldwide effort
to wipe out polio, because dozens of new cases appeared in Nigeria. All this
comes from paranoid rumors that the medicine was a Western attempt to sterilize
Moslem children. The Nigerian government put pressure on conservative Islamic
leaders to stop preaching against the vaccination program, with mixed results.
Islamic radicals are preaching against other types of vaccinations as well,
causing something of an "Islamic Plague" among the growing number of
unvaccinated children.
This
sort of illogical, self-destructive, paranoia is popular among Islamic radicals
and terrorists. It's a form of the popular hysteria that usually just manifests
itself in rather harmless hero worship of entertainers or athletes. But since
Islam was founded on the use of violence to spread the faith, and enforce
discipline among followers, there's no end to this custom of conjuring up
imaginary threats, and then getting violent over the issue. But in this case,
most of the victims are young children, who are paralyzed for life, or killed,
because their parents, caught up in paranoid fervor, refuse the vaccinations.
In some cases, the Islamic radicals use force to keep the vaccination teams
from an area, thus preventing many parents, who want the vaccinations, from
getting them.
To
some extent, these irrational and destructive policies should provide some
counterterrorist opportunities. But not always, because of the delusional
nature of this Islamic paranoia, even the negative outcomes of, say, stopping
vaccinations, can be blamed on evil infidels (non-Moslems.) It takes a lot of
effort to overcome this mentality, but until that is done, Islamic terrorism
will keep coming back, as it has done for centuries.
