The Wild West and the Fanatics

So yesterday I passed by the Danish consulate while in a taxi. I was kind of unprepared for this and hadn't been thinking about what happened on Sunday - 'normal' everyday life picks up very quickly here after bombs, demonstrations or whatever and provides a nice shield against thinking about this stuff. So all of a sudden I looked out the car window and found myself surveying a very familiar scene: hey I've seen this on TV the other day.....OH! Ok, it's the Danish consulate... a completely burned-out shell now. At least it looks like that - they say the damage is actually not that bad. One guy died in there. He was only 22. He got trapped by the fire that he and his buddies had been setting, and jumped out a third-floor window to escape. He didn't make it. Why why why??? Why wasn't he playing a football match with his team, or taking a walk with his girlfriend or something, or drawing, or...? How did he end up in there?

As has been suggested a lot in recent days, I think the whole problem is obviously an outgrowth of the 'Islam vs. the West' issue. This is the answer to the 'war on terror': just as this supposed war has no objectives that can realistically be achieved and is directed against an ill-defined, general 'enemy', the 'war on caricatures' has no specific goals either. It's an outburst of anger and frustration directed at an enemy perceived as all-powerful and overbearing. The comparison is lacking though in that the violence related to the caricatures is largely spontaneous I think and not necessarily related to a sustained anti-Western conspiracy. It's not really a policy, and it shouldn't be confused with the policies of many moderate Islamic parties. An interesting article on this topic is here.

What can be done about this? In my opinion there are many things we can do. Even if Muslims take to the streets in London and hold placards saying 'kill all non-believers'. Even if occasionally various al-Qaeda people appear on television and tell us we're all going to die and we're on the wrong path. In Europe, we can
1) start to question our assumptions about Islam, Islamic countries, Arab countries - are we perhaps mixing up different things and notions here that should be kept separate? Are we making too many assumptions about what life is like 'over there'? Can we somehow make attempts to find out (read stuff, talk to people)?
2) look at what our governments are doing in the 'war on terror'. Is all of it a good idea? Do we need all of that, or some of that? Especially in the UK, but also in other countries (Sarkozy in France) including Denmark - how is the Danish government treating its immigrants? How have Danish immigration policies changed over the past few years? Do some of these policies make things worse in the way a self-fulfilling prophecy can?
3) say something if we disagree with any of the above policies.
4) not take personally the insults and outrageously prejudiced ramblings of a minority of deluded people (i.e. 'terrorists') in those infamous Al Jazeera tapes that crop up periodically ('The West is immoral' etc.). They probably have no idea what they're talking about anyway.

In Arab countries, we (the people who live there and the foreigners who work there) can also do a lot of things:
1) take a cue from the freedom of expression debate that is currently going on and see if there's anything we can do to protect it in Arab countries.
2) make sure that people have alternatives to joining radical religious movements. And this, of course, requires an enormous amount of change: more economic opportunities. More ways for citizens to ask for their legitimate rights (freedom of religion, expression, association...) without endangering themselves or their families. A foreign policy on the part of the international community that does not reward the wrong people (i.e. autocratic, backward-looking governments).
3) question our prejudices about the 'West': what are our assumptions about 'life over there'? Should we trust what our media says? How can we use the opportunities we have (internet etc.) to obtain different information? (i.e., read stuff, talk to people).
4) even if they are limited: grasp every opportunity to speak out against the government if we disagree with them. They might not be as powerful as they have been in the past...

Well there you have it, this is my insignificant opinion on what's going on. I would even go so far as saying that this is something we HAVE to do if we want to stop and eventually reverse the current trend of misunderstanding, fear and frustration.