:
Su Feb 13 -

IN SEARCH OF:
VILLAINS AND SCAPEGOATS -

I think I have posted a couple of casual reactions to a series Jihad Al Khazen has been publishing at Dar Al Hayat. In case my remarks have gotten you interested in reading his series more thoroughly, the online publication does not provide a list of courtesy links to each back chapter, but you can retrieve them at Google by pasting the following query into the search box:

:: QUERY: *site:english.daralhayat.com Ayoon wa Azan +"The Neo-Cons Again" by Jihad Al Khazen*

# What was the impetus for this series? I am choosing to presume that it was his intellectual curiosity. But if you read it for yourself, you'll see that he brings some baggage to the project.

# For this series he has accumulated lots of information out of which he has tried to construct a narrative thread or story. I don't have a problem with the bulk of his information for the sake of a preliminary discussion, but, rather, I have issues with the way he connects the dots.

# In Chapter II, for example, he posits two groups: former students of a Chicago professor named Strauss and the Qaeda.

First, there is no valid parallel between these two groups which are like apples and oranges.

The first is a random group; the second has a special mutual interest which binds them together and becomes the organizing principle for their lives.

The first group is random because people sign up for a professor's course for many diverse reasons. Some may need three more credits to complete a semester requirement, some may have the time period for the class open on their schedule, and some may even sign up because a pretty blonde girl they're soft on has signed up for that class whom they'd like to get closer to so they can get to know her. The former or current students of any professor are random.

The second group has a mutual interest. The first group may not have any interests in common. But Khazen invests the random students with a special teleology from his own imagination.

So much for parallel.

Then Khazen tries to draw a moral equivalence between the two groups which is, well, beyond ridiculous.

There is no moral equivalence between random former students of a Chicago professor and a group of mass murderers who killed 3,000 office workers in cold blood by using jumbo jets as missiles on 9/11.

This is just not credible.

# The series is filled with flaws like the one described above. And it has lots of shmooshy ellisons and sloshy thinking. This may not be The Twilight Zone; but it is, at least, The Blurry Zone.

As I've mentioned before, I enjoy some of his lighter pieces. I don't normally study his more intellectual ventures. And I did not intend to delve into this series so intensely.

Try it if you're so inclined, but try to be a critical reader.

Gee, I hope I haven't ruined your Sunday.

Take it easy :-)

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