What are its flaws, and there are many, but it is deepest one, I think for Muslims is that it is inherently unislamic. If you look at just three simple examples, Islam prohibits the killing of innocent civilians during warfare. Bin Laden says, it's justified. Islam prohibits identifying individuals as non-believers or apostates or infidels, so long as they practice the core faiths of Islam. Bin Laden says, that he and other of his followers can identify and label people to be apostates. Third, is that Islam strictly prohibits suicide. Bin Laden says suicide is justified in advancing this political cause of his and people will still be rewarded in the afterlife. So it's flawed and unattractive because it's inherently unislamic. Second, it's a set of ideas that require a huge sacrifice on behalf of individuals. They are to drop everything, leave their worldly pursuits of their families, their children to travel to wherever the conflict needs to be fought. This is of course, very unattractive to most people who revel in the joys of families life and relationships rather then sacrificing at all. For Bin Ladin somewhat ideas. Third, it's very joyless and stern. Everywhere that these groups have gained predominance indeed and sovereignty. People who live under their strict practices, their version of religion, their interpretation of what Sharia law requires are miserable. There's no joy, there's no music, girls can't go to school. All of these strict practices, people rebel against them and indeed when people like the Taliban have been cast off or Al Qaeda in Iraq, they gained power in certain areas of Iraq during the conflict were rejected. People celebrated because they could go back to a normal and more enjoyable life. In Afghanistan prohibited the practice of flying these colorful kites. So the Al Qaeda ideology is just too joyous for most people. And finally, I mentioned its strength that lives on accountable but ideology that rebels to death rather than creating a positive vision of what is attractive about life on this Earth. It's ultimately deeply flawed, and is going to have a very narrow audience. It's a very grim view of the world, and Bin Laden has no positive social agenda. He doesn't explain how if you follow his principles, life here on Earth will be made happier, better. Why will people get more of the things they want, which is a good job, a good education, healthcare, clean water. Bin Laden has no social program, and his only idea is that we'll support Muslims and live better in the afterlife, and that's not a vision that's going to be heavily attracted to many people. So, we've studied the ideology this week. We do know that too many people end up adopting it and following it towards violence, and our focus next week will be the process through which people go through. Where they transform being generally normal individuals, into followers of this radical extremist set of ideas.
