On Faith: Muslims Speak Out Blog

Robert Baer, the former Middle East CIA operative, recently interviewed a 17-year-old suicide bomber from Afghanistan who was caught before he could undertake the attack. Baer discovers that, far from being a rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth, anti-American zealot, the boy was simply brainwashed into believing Al Qaeda’s ideology. Among the absurdities the boy believed was that the President of Pakistan, Pervaiz Musharaff, was a Jew.

Ideology is the refuge of con men.

Its influence is derived from restricting the availability of information so as to manipulate the way people view the world. Ideology flourishes in environments where reality is oversimplified into a vapid, monochromatic, black-and-white view of the world. “Either you’re with us, or you’re against us” can go both ways.