Because the Arabs can't help it

Libby Spencer over at a site called Newshoggers offers a race-based excuse for violence:

It's not surprising that one of the Glasgow doctors who was arrested for the basically failed bombing attempt is a Sunni who is upset by the Iraq occupation. It's also no surprise that Protein Wisdom's resident genius fails to make the connection between the unnecessary invasion and toppling of a secular regime there and the incitement to violence in a man who otherwise would have peacefully practiced medicine.

Apparently, people can be "incited" to violence against innocent third parties who pose no threat to them. See, this person couldn't help participating in an act of violence, due to his outrage over events in his homeland. It's "not surprising", in Libby's words, because he is a Sunni.

This also would form an excellent explanation for lynchings and honor killings. To claim that such violence is the fault of, say, the perpetrator, would be to miss the "connection".

How about this: the (attempted) acts of violence in Britain are the responsibility of those who committed them. Call me crazy. Libby can't even be bothered to use the person's name. He's just a Sunni, after all. And remember, if he weren't committing violence, he would be living peacefully.

As a person of Arab descent, I do hope Ms. Spencer will find my peaceful demeanor, um, unsurprising.

The seed of such a "progressive" argument is a conviction that we must think of people in groups, and explain their behaviors thus. It is presumably not what Ms. Spencer intended to say, but the implication is undeniable.

(h/t protein wisdom)

(updated 9 July to correct gender)

Comments

[Darren]

I've typed it so often that the keyboard could probably type it out itself: lefties see people only as members of groups, whereas those on the right see individuals.

[GunTrash]

I was surprised by the blog title and thought I'd check it out. Nice blog, but I have to be straight up with you, brother, reading black type on a dark grayish background is a chore.

[shamanic]

You draw an interesting conclusion about the linked post, given that the post itself is about the fallacy of grouping people based on racial or other innocuous associations. Her other example was Tim McVeigh, white guy, former military, NRA member.

The paragraph you quoted (out of context) is a criticism of another blogger who boiled the Glasgow attacks down to this: "So, in his piety, he wished for the halcyon days of Sunni domination under Saddam’s reign, or barring that, a return to less secular days of a fabled time 7 centuries earlier."

If the quoted paragraph was all she wrote, I would have to agree with you, but it isn't. Taking the rest of the post along with the paragraph you quoted, I can only conclude that you and Libby Spencer are in complete agreement about "race-based excuses".

[Matt S]

shamanic, fair enough. it's the "incitement" part that set me rolling.

[AndrewMSV]

Wait. What? You are of Arab decent? How interesting. Please elaborate? Not because I want to pry, just because it's facinating. (I'm not sure there's a difference but I think there is.)
Your profile pic looks like Dave Gahan. (No offense. I've long realized that comparing an individual to another always grates on that person and they usually don't know why. I believe it's because it seems an attack on their individuality is taking place. So, again, I say, 'no offense!')

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