The New York Times Exposes one of the Middle East’s Two Terrible Diseases
in their stories one sees all the symptoms of one of the Middle East’s two terrible diseases — tribalism.
.. The Kurds appear united to the outside world but are in reality divided by their own factions. Syrians shift loyalties in the civil war with alacrity, with militias hopping from faction to faction. Egyptians — despite living in a land with perhaps the strongest national identity in the Muslim Middle East — are torn between strongmen and Islamic fundamentalists. ISIS arises, and even some of its fighters join mainly to settle local scores or to earn handsome paychecks.
.. Competing with tribalism is universalist, aggressive, jihadist Islam. Anderson quotes a young Syrian who declares that “ISIS isn’t just an organization, it’s an idea.”
.. By the same token, focus on jihadists tends to obscures the reality that jihadists are often just disguised tribal warriors — men who’ve signed on to the Caliphate truly to settle their local scores — and that persistent tribalism renders solutions to overarching universalist problems elusive
.. By the same token, focus on jihadists tends to obscures the reality that jihadists are often just disguised tribal warriors — men who’ve signed on to the Caliphate truly to settle their local scores — and that persistent tribalism renders solutions to overarching universalist problems elusive