The Animal House Conservative explains the real cause of jihad

I haven’t discussed any non-Islam theories of Islamic extremism in quite a while—I guess every such theory that could be thought up has by now been thought up. But here’s a new theory or rather a variation on a previous theory, namely that jihadism results from sexual frustration. The variation that I just came across is expressed in a manner suitable to the character and intellect of the person expressing it: Jonah Goldberg at NRO opines that “the rise of Jihadism around the world” is due to “the crappy dating scene.”

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Dunnyveg writes:

Please forgive me if I’m covering old ground, but there are some very obvious problems with Goldberg’s theory as follows: “One of the firmest facts in all of social science is that young men are by nature more aggressive than women or old men. It is true in all societies of which we have any record, as far back in history as those records go, and of nonhuman primates as well as of human ones. Though culture may moderate or intensify this disposition, it is not the chief cause of it.”

Young men are more aggressive than females or older men. But once again, it seems that the importance of culture is being seriously discounted. If it were universally true that abstinent men were more violent than sexually active men, then Roman Catholic clergy should be the most violent group on earth. How about the Shakers who were supposed to spend their entire lifetimes in celibacy? Were they jihadists too?

And how do we know that these young jihadists are really celibate? Prostitution isn’t unknown in Muslim Countries. Ahmed Rashid, author of the Pre-9/11 book titled “Taliban” states the reason for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was the rampant homosexuality of the ruling warlords. And it turns out that homosexuality is a common alternative for Muslims in situations where woman aren’t available, either sexually or physically. Isn’t it then equally plausible—or equally ridiculous—that homosexuality motivates jihadists?

No, Christians have routinely dealt with the rigors of long periods of celibacy without resorting to jihad-type behaviors. And judging by their ever-growing numbers, Muslims aren’t terribly celibate. Culture prescribes what, when, and under what terms sex and violence are permissible. Could it be that jihad is motivated by the militant, martial tenor of the Quran whether the reader is sexually active or not?

LA replies:

I think what Dunnyveg is really pointing to is the fatuousness of any material reductionist theory which reasons straight from some material condition, e.g., lack of sexual activity, to a specific act which in fact is religiously motivitated and cannot be understood apart from religion, e.g., jihadist mass murder.

RB writes:

“Jonah Goldberg at NRO opines that “the rise of Jihadism around the world” is due to “the crappy dating scene.”’

There is a grain of truth in this, but as one should expect the “brilliant” thinker is looking through the wrong end of the telescope. The sexual frustration of young males in the Muslim world is a contingent outcome of the “strategy” Islamic culture has evolved to make possible its highly successful previous expansions. By relegating women to the status of property monopolized by elite males Islam evolved as an engine for harnessing the aggressive energy of young males. Islam beckons its more zealous followers with material and sensual rewards both in paradise and on earth. Furthermore, the rewards guaranteed to its devotees, particularly its male devotees, by Islam are more full-blooded than the benefits promised by competing religions and more eternal than the, rather thin, gruel offered by the secular ideologies. One additional result is that Islam was marked by a severe loss of social status and legal rights for women.

Islam has the remarkable advantage of being highly patriarchal and polygamous with great sexual benefits for those warriors able to conquer in its name; Islam was and remains a great male racket. Furthermore, these advantages are not the temporary kind that have always been associated with warfare, but continue to exist within the peacetime new order. Wherever the warriors of Islam went they were able to commandeer large numbers of native women as wives and concubines. And unlike their counterparts in the West, they were able to do so with full religious and legal sanction. Their warrior sons, the mixed offspring of these matings, in turn zealously spread their new religion and culture as they conquer still more territory and the process is repeated through several generations.

Historians have enumerated a number of reasons for Islam’s success but have ignored or, perhaps have not understood, the unprecedented way in which Islam evolved as an engine for harnessing the aggressive energy of young males. Nor have they acknowledged how the usual and temporary sexual advantages accruing to successful warriors in a time of war were extended into a permanent institution sanctified by religious law. This is expressed by the institutions of polygamy and concubinage; the institution of polygamy was fairly common in Islamic history and is still widespread in certain parts of the Muslim world. And sexual slavery was a frequent occurrence, even among lower levels of society throughout much of Islamic history, particularly during the periods of the great Islamic conquests. These historical circumstances have left a number of deep psychological scars on modern Muslims as can be seen in the headlines on any given day.

LA replies:

This is brilliant. Another example of how Muhammad was a successful Hitler. Is this your idea?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 31, 2007 02:48 PM | Send