This Is A Religious War

There was a fascinating interview with one Hassan Butt, a former Qaeda trainee and organizer in Britain, on Sixty Minutes last night. It's riveting not just because of the details of the terrorist network, but also his analysis of what really drives it: devout religious faith (and a nifty suspension of arranged marriages for the murderers). We are facing terrorism rooted in the deepest wells of religion and nowhere else. It spans across classes, cultures and countries. It is a theology - a manifestation of faith stripped of doubt, bereft of a loving God, and integral to Islam:

"The four men who blew themselves up [on 7/7] all came from good families, good homes, good educations. How do you explain what they did?" Simon asks.

"I mean, for me, they did it simply because they were convinced that they were doing something in the name of God, in the name of Islam. And they honestly believed they would obtain paradise from doing the activities that they carried out, the terrorist attacks that they carried out," Butt explains.

How does this extremism relate to Islam in general?

"The position of moderate Muslims is that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Do you buy that?" Simon asks.

"No, absolutely not. By completely being in denial about it's like an alcoholic basically. Unless an alcoholic acknowledges that he has a problem with alcohol, he's never gonna be able to go forward," Butt argues. "And as long as we, as Muslims, do not acknowledge that there is a violent streak in Islam, unless we acknowledge that, then we are gonna always lose the battle to the militants, by being in complete denial about it."

The current state of Islam is the problem; and only Muslims can find the solution.