Disturbingly accurate description of the theatrical production by journalist Lawrence Wright.

Wright co-wrote a 1998 film, “The Siege,” which, with startling prescience, foresaw terrorist attacks in the United States and subsequent waves of anti-Muslim prejudice, detention, surveillance and allegations of torture. “In the month after 9/11,” he notes, “it was the most rented movie in America, making me the first profiteer in the War on Terror.”

Guilt and curiosity sent him east, resulting in a superb book on the history of al-Qaeda, “The Looming Tower,” and now this play, which will run in New York City until mid-April.

Wright speaks of the roots of radical Islamic fundamentalism, its feudal anti-intellectualism, mistreatment of women, the profound feelings of humiliation and impotent rage (especially against the Saudi royal family) that lead to global violence and death. “Perhaps al-Qaeda can best be understood as an engine that runs on the despair of the Arab world,” he says, “especially its young men, whose lives are so futile and unexpressed. Al-Qaeda offers them a chance to make history. All they have to do is die.”

The plan, according to Wright, is to “draw America deep into conflict with the Muslim world, until we are so overextended and financially exhausted we pull out entirely from the Middle East…. Then, by the year 2020, they will form an Islamic army that will engage in a final apocalyptic war with the unbelievers.” But, Wright continues, they have no plan to govern, no solutions for joblessness or health care or protecting the environment. “Al-Qaeda doesn’t believe in politics. Because it doesn’t believe in the future. It has no vision. It’s not a movement, it’s an instinct, a reaction, like a snakebite.”

—————

In “My Trip to al-Qaeda,” Lawrence Wright concludes, “There is a hole inside us. It is a black hole. The country we were is being sucked into it. Al-Qaeda cannot destroy America. Only we can do that to ourselves.”

Read the rest of this article by Michael Winship Here

Al-Queda, twin to the Christianist Dominionists of our own culture (led by the likes of James Dobson and Pat Robertson). Two dark mirrors of nihilism, staring into each other’s apocalyptic abyss, promising everything but delivering nothing. Nothing but death. In true Orwellian fashion, they label themselves “pro-life” but are in essence nothing but death cults.

For more on this phenomenon in our own culture, I would recommend Chris Hedges’ work “American Fascists”.

Transcript of the Chris Hedges interview on Democracy Now