Bret Stephens: How does Germany's Red Army Faction differ from radical Islam?
Thirty years ago this month, Germany's Red Army Faction -- better known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang -- kidnapped Hanns-Martin Schleyer, president of the German employers' association, and murdered his driver and three bodyguards. Six weeks later, on Oct. 18, 1977, the RAF murdered Schleyer, too, after the West German government refused to give in to RAF demands for the release of its imprisoned leaders. That same day, three of those leaders -- Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe -- committed suicide. Schleyer's body was found the next day in the trunk of a car, his mouth stuffed with pine needles. An RAF communiqué announced that "we have ended Hanns-Martin Schleyer's pitiful and corrupt existence. . . . His death is meaningless for our pain and our rage."
Today, Germans remember these events -- collectively known as der Deutsche Herbst, or German autumn -- with a degree of fascination that sometimes borders on nostalgia. (Der Spiegel devotes this week's cover story to it.) They might remember them, too, for what they say about the present: The sixth anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11 is upon us, as is another manifesto from Osama bin Laden, as is another foiled terrorist attack in Germany. Is the autumn of '77 so different from this one? How significantly does the Red Terror of the RAF differ from the Green Terror of radical Islam?
In some respects, it differs considerably. The RAF wanted to overthrow the West German government in favor of a Marxist regime. Bin Laden wants to overthrow the Arab dictatorships in favor of a unified caliphate and convert the rest of the world to Islam. Baader-Meinhof was mainly a domestic phenomenon, although it had its links with other European and Palestinian radicals. Al Qaeda is a genuinely global organization. In its 25 years, the RAF murdered some 30-odd people and maimed another 60 -- just a short day's work for al Qaeda. "Collateral damage" aside, Baader and friends were selective about their targets, sometimes cannily so -- Schleyer, for instance, had a Nazi past and seemed to personify what the Baader-Meinhof gang believed was the fundamental linkage between the Third Reich and the Federal Republic. Al Qaeda, by contrast, murders Christians, Jews, Hindus, Shiites and even Sunnis without discrimination.
Yet as the details of last week's foiled plot become clearer, the contrast between the practitioners of Red and Green terrorism starts to blur. Often, the similarities are personal: Just as Ayman al-Zawahiri had been a doctor and Mohamed Atta an urban planner before turning to jihad, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin had each had prior careers in journalism and publishing. These are not the wretched of the earth, but the educated and disgruntled children of the bourgeoisie....
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Today, Germans remember these events -- collectively known as der Deutsche Herbst, or German autumn -- with a degree of fascination that sometimes borders on nostalgia. (Der Spiegel devotes this week's cover story to it.) They might remember them, too, for what they say about the present: The sixth anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11 is upon us, as is another manifesto from Osama bin Laden, as is another foiled terrorist attack in Germany. Is the autumn of '77 so different from this one? How significantly does the Red Terror of the RAF differ from the Green Terror of radical Islam?
In some respects, it differs considerably. The RAF wanted to overthrow the West German government in favor of a Marxist regime. Bin Laden wants to overthrow the Arab dictatorships in favor of a unified caliphate and convert the rest of the world to Islam. Baader-Meinhof was mainly a domestic phenomenon, although it had its links with other European and Palestinian radicals. Al Qaeda is a genuinely global organization. In its 25 years, the RAF murdered some 30-odd people and maimed another 60 -- just a short day's work for al Qaeda. "Collateral damage" aside, Baader and friends were selective about their targets, sometimes cannily so -- Schleyer, for instance, had a Nazi past and seemed to personify what the Baader-Meinhof gang believed was the fundamental linkage between the Third Reich and the Federal Republic. Al Qaeda, by contrast, murders Christians, Jews, Hindus, Shiites and even Sunnis without discrimination.
Yet as the details of last week's foiled plot become clearer, the contrast between the practitioners of Red and Green terrorism starts to blur. Often, the similarities are personal: Just as Ayman al-Zawahiri had been a doctor and Mohamed Atta an urban planner before turning to jihad, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin had each had prior careers in journalism and publishing. These are not the wretched of the earth, but the educated and disgruntled children of the bourgeoisie....