Juan Pablo Villarino: prediction

Transcript context

…Do you feel there’s something you understand about terrorism in, say, Iraq or Afghanistan that most other people would not? First of all, people would unfortunately relate just a reason to the names of these countries, and they would miss the broader picture, which is the whole people living there. I can also understand how terrorists come to be because those being in these countries where they’re absolutely open to foreigners, but at the same time, it’s an easy ground in which to recruit people because of their overpopulation. Religiously speaking, Islam needs an instance of self-criticism. I think the societies haven’t been able to go through a process of updating and allowing self-criticism. I think that in this sense, they are a bit close-minded. It has been easy for insurgent groups to recruit people. I have seen the social mechanisms behind it and the way they really — some time ago, I was in Egypt, and there was a school. The motto of the school was that they wanted to produce good citizens and good Muslims, that they would be able to repeat the Quran by heart. As long as they keep their goals of education as being able to repeat the Quran by heart, then it’s always leaving a gate open for people who are so fervent about it. If you consider your longer trips — say, the trip through Africa — and I were to suggest a hypothesis that every longish trip has at its core some central place or event or a kind of emotional heart, maybe not planned in advance, probably not planned in advance, but at the end of the trip, you realize this emotional heart of the trip is there. And if it’s not there, you did something wrong. Agree or disagree?…

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