Paris ISIS and Petrodollars

Today I don't have any message.  I have mainly confusion and will try to pass along the fog surrounding me.

I am not an expert on political commentary or history or economics.  I only have some experience in the basic science of biochemistry and protein chemistry.
I try to keep up with current events by following different sources.  Radio, TV, international news.  It is ever more confusing to understand what the truth is especially after the Paris attacks of November 13.
Who is Isis?  How did it it begin?  Whose fault is it?  Who is funding it?  What is the best way to fight it?  You will hear as many opinions as there are commentators.  And all commentaries come with some bias: political right or left.  Religious orthodox or secular.   Emotionally the hard and the soft.
I like to follow an Israeli radio program that reviews the world newspapers.  This week most front page articles were about the Paris attacks.  Yitshak Noy, certainly with his own bias mentioned an exceptional article in the New York Times by an Algerian writer. 

Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/21/opinion/saudi-arabia-an-isis-that-has-made-it.html?_r=0

Kamel Daoud

This article is exceptional as it talks "On the Religious Industrial Complex of Saudi Arabia", a sensitive topic in an oil dependent world.  In the newspaper that usually holds left wing opinions.

Here is an excerpt:

"It is worth reading certain Islamist newspapers to see their reactions to the attacks in Paris. The West is cast as a land of “infidels.” The attacks were the result of the onslaught against Islam. Muslims and Arabs have become the enemies of the secular and the Jews. The Palestinian question is invoked along with the rape of Iraq and the memory of colonial trauma, and packaged into a messianic discourse meant to seduce the masses. Such talk spreads in the social spaces below, while up above, political leaders send their condolences to France and denounce a crime against humanity. This totally schizophrenic situation parallels the West’s denial regarding Saudi Arabia."

I see this article as pointing out a reality in the Arab world.  I have read many of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's writings.  I have been following this Somali woman who grew up Muslim.  She is considered an infidel and Muslims are threatening her since they murdered the Dutch director Theo Van Goch.  She insists that Islam must have a reformation and specifically the problem of "preaching teachers."  

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Another opinion published in the same newspaper by Thomas L. Friedman is showing a softer point of view:

 

Cabs, Camels or ISIS

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/opinion/cabs-camels-or-isis.html

 

Thomas Friedman

In this article we hear about positive innovations in the Arab world and the need to strengthen good non ISIS Sunnis.  But he ends the article so:

"Turkey cares more about defeating Kurds; Saudi Arabia and its Arab Gulf allies care more about defeating Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Yemen and Syria; Qatar cares more about promoting the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria and annoying Saudi Arabia; Iran cares more about protecting Shiites in Iraq and Syria than creating a space for decent Sunnis to thrive; and many of the non-ISIS Sunni activists in Syria and Iraq are still Islamists — and they’re not going away. How do you weave a decent carpet from these threads?

I don’t know — and until I do I’d be cautious about going far beyond what we’re already doing. Paris may be totally different today. The Middle East is not."

Each of us can read these articles and figure out what should we do next.  Many people agree with me that we should insist on sustainable sources of energy.  Heard from a friend how to take personal action:

http://www.fuelfreedom.org/

-started by successful Israel entrepreneurs to fight the energy establishment that steers the US policies to support the Saudi Kingdom.

And we should remember to be thankful.