Monday, December 24, 2007
Dissonance
Which makes reading the Arab press frustrating, to say the least.
Here's an article from today's Al-Jazeera online about Hezbollah Scout troops detailing some of their wholesome activities. In addition to the traditional physical fitness and computer skills training, the young cubs are educated in the finer points of anti-Israeli jihad and "martyrdom" operations.
Dr Bilal Naim, president of the Mahdi Scouts, told Al Jazeera that the group places importance on telling Scouts about the work of the Islamic Resistance, Hezbollah's armed wing.
"After 15 or 16 years old, we say to everybody that the Islamic Resistance is one of the foundations that defends against Israel and that the jihad [struggle] against Israel is one of the concepts of Islam," he said in the district of Haret Hreik, Beirut.
...
Some of the younger Scouts, quite unprompted by their adult leaders, told Al Jazeera that they were already certain of their loyalty to the party.
"We want to be good Muslims and defend our land against Israel," 14-year-old Adel Ahmar said.
His friend Hussien Hamade, also 14, said that he shared the same view.
"Al-Mahdi Scouts told us to be martyrs defending our land from all the countries that attack us," he said.
"We should defend our country through the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon and be martyrs finally."
All well and good. I was an active member of Bnei Akiva, which may not have been quite so vociferous about the actual murder/suicide part, but certainly made it clear that defending Israel and dying for its cause were noble endeavors. So we can all agree that we have a scouting organization that is focused on indoctrinating Lebanese youth in Hezbollah philosophy, right?
The claims of indoctrination have been rebuffed by the Scout group, which has called the report "an organised attack [which] aims at erasing the culture of the resistance," in its own published response.
See, this is what boggles my mind. This group has as its stated purpose indoctrinating children with pro-Hezbollah, um, doctrine. Yet if you acknowledge that fact, you are part of a Zionist cabal. How do these people function? When you order a coffee, do they throw it in your face? It's like "1984", just with less cool drugs.
