The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Front-Ranger:
Reading the article "Last Days" by William Finnegan is very timely since Apple is objecting to the request to unlock the phones of Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik. The more we know about them, the better we may understand the mysterious and diabolical process of radicalization. What would motivate a couple with a young child who are doing well in America, with a good job and a comfortable middle class life, to scheme to end their lives and the lives of 14 others, workers at a center for the developmentally disabled, in a rain of gunfire??
serious crayons:
Just finished an article from my ripped-out pile, from June I think, about something similar -- a Belgian teenager who joined a radical Islamist group in Antwerp and then went to Syria and joined a group that became part of ISIS. His father struggled for years to get him back and finally succeeded, partly because the kid wasn't completely on board at that point anyway and had been beaten and imprisoned by the group because of it. Lots of horrifying details about the group's casual beheadings, shootings, torture, etc. When the kid got back to Belgium he gave information to authorities but they prosecuted him anyway because apparently they don't plea bargain in Belgium. The kid got a light sentence, however, and now he's crazily considering going back to Syria.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 20, 2016, 12:38:56 pm ---Just finished an article from my ripped-out pile, from June I think, about something similar -- a Belgian teenager who joined a radical Islamist group in Antwerp and then went to Syria and joined a group that became part of ISIS. His father struggled for years to get him back and finally succeeded, partly because the kid wasn't completely on board at that point anyway and had been beaten and imprisoned by the group because of it. Lots of horrifying details about the group's casual beheadings, shootings, torture, etc. When the kid got back to Belgium he gave information to authorities but they prosecuted him anyway because apparently they don't plea bargain in Belgium. The kid got a light sentence, however, and now he's crazily considering going back to Syria.
--- End quote ---
I remember reading that article. I found it riveting.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on February 20, 2016, 01:07:15 pm ---I remember reading that article. I found it riveting.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I guess I saw it as dutyish at the time. It is a bit, but in a valuable way.
Front-Ranger:
I arrived home from babysitting around 3 today and kind of collapsed with my new copy of the New Yorker. It made me feel good to read about the Passion of the Little Match Girl and think, oh yes, I know all about that. To think, I knew about something covered in the New Yorker, before it was mentioned in TNY! It was actually my beau R. who gave me the CD of the Passion of the little match girl as well as Bang on a Can. I suspect that they were CDs that his wife had bought and liked. I think he prefers classical music.
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