Wahhabism : A primer

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant article on Wahhabism, Salafism, Fundamental Islamism and related concepts.


Oh, boy... what joy to read and understand. A must read, IMO.






"Why should we be surprised then, that from Prince Bandar's Saudi-Western mandate to manage the insurgency in Syria against President Assad should have emerged a neo-Ikhwan type of violent, fear-inducing vanguard movement: ISIS? And why should we be surprised -- knowing a little about Wahhabism -- that "moderate" insurgents in Syria would become rarer than a mythical unicorn? Why should we have imagined that radical Wahhabism would create moderates? Or why could we imagine that a doctrine of "One leader, One authority, One mosque: submit to it, or be killed" could ever ultimately lead to moderation or tolerance?  "






More here


My rhetorical qns as always:


a. So who is the IS?
b. Who is a moderate rebel and / or a moderate jidahist.

Law of the instrument

Interesting tidbits.


From Kaplan and Maslow... loosely translates to this: if one has just a hammer, everything looks like a nail.


More here

Microcoms vs macrocosm

At the microcosmic level, it might be that all life is Maya... However, at the macrocosmic level with such a large population of humans, with countless species in land, water and air-borne, it seems quite stupid that all of this could be Maya and just mention that and get away with it.

 

Possibilities:

 

a. Maya is just the shield or the curtain or the wool that is over the people's eyes. It takes time, effort and practice to get over the screen and look at things with a discerning eye and get the 'picture'. Needs concentration and focusing powers to improve these skills -- to get the real signal from all the noises. Needle in a haystack? You bet - except that this is about a zillion times more difficult.

 

b. At the larger scale, it seems such a waste of time that God [He's PRESENT. I still cant get to agree that a superior power doesn't exist. Simply has to... to answer a lot of assumptions. Even science is divided here and cant explain what happened pre-BIG BANG] created such a vast body of wasteland and also created life and made his children suffer. Why do this nonsense if there was no purpose? I don't see god as so cruel [under the pure assumption & practicality that all life is pain and we all strive to move towards bliss]

 

c. As a Believer in Advaita: the microcosm is the macrocosm and the macrocosm is the microcosm. Both are interchangeable & reversible. If that were so, the same maya will govern both micro & and macro-cosm's.

 

d. Its possible that these are some of the big questions that needs answers:

• What is the end point?
• What do one more marginal extra rupee give me in terms of happiness?
• What does one more marginal unit of luxury give me in terms of better quality of life?
• What does one more marginal unit of extracting work (help) from others to get stuff done give me in terms of improving my status in life?
• What is more important: Being a better person (and lead a fair life with a reasonable balance) or being a successful person (and live mainly because of receiving subsidies due to sacrifices made by others, obtained by virtue of ones power, responsibility and position)
• What leads to happiness: external factors or internal factors [materialism vs love, money / rent seeking vs service of society etc]

Maya still exists without a doubt. However, it also seems obvious that there is life (or atleast something) beyond it.


Strive to come out of it. Strive. Hard. Harder. Break Free. The truth is out there.


Think.

More on SCS, ECS

troubles within, troubles without.


gripping.


here