The Terrorism Theory That Explains Everything ... Except Terrorism

Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg is not only an expert on gender, he’s also a bit of an expert on Islam.

He was asked on Sunday about Pauline Hanson’s claim, on a podcast back in April, that a lot of Islam is based on terrorism.

Here’s what Hanson said …

“It’s an ideology and a lot of it’s based on terrorism incompatible with our culture and our way of life. And wake up Australia”

The Australian newspaper called Hanson’s remarks “incendiary”.

Fair enough.

But an argument being incendiary tells you precisely nothing about whether or not the argument is true.

Here’s Andrew Bragg responding on the ABC Sunday morning …

Where people of the Muslim faith have engaged in acts of terror they’ve done so on the basis of a mutation in their own mind.

The very vast majority of Australian Muslims have no interest and would entirely reject the idea of taking up arms against their fellow Australian citizens.

So according to Andrew Bragg … when Muslims commit acts of terror … it’s got nothing to do with Islam.

It’s all down to a mutation in their own mind.

Perhaps Andrew Bragg has special insights into the minds of terrorists.

He certainly seems to have insights into biology that the rest of us don’t have.

But his assertion that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam does raise more questions than it answers, doesn’t it?

If Muslims who commit acts of terror do so because of a mutation in their own mind … why does this strange neurological condition seem to occur most often in Muslims?

Why aren’t Baptists, or Presbyterians, suffering this same mutation of the mind that leads to acts of violence?

When was the last time a Methodist screamed “For John Wesley!” before detonating a vest?

Over the course of 500 years the Anglicans have produced dreary sermons, endless committee meetings and weak cups of tea … but never suicide bombers.

Now, of course, I agree with Andrew Bragg that the vast majority of Australian Muslims have no interest in taking up arms against non-Muslims.

And thank God for that.

Although now I’ve accidentally raised another awkward question …