March 2002

The Buffoon's Jihad
Book Review- THEM: Adventures with Extremists

A review of
THEM: Adventures with Extremists
by Jon Ronson

Wandering through a book megastore one day, I saw THEM. A bright yellow jacket teeming with wordswordswords, only diluted by a tiny picture of the author up in the left corner. It was the Dr. Bronner's Soap of the book world. In the middle of megastore madness, the book was jarring. The other books' covers were all much more image than word. The marketing folks generally try to draw you into a purchase before you realize that literacy was essential to the book's use. This book however said READ me. I was hooked.

I didn't buy the book that day. I needed to mull it over. I'd gotten so many books recently. Did I really need to buy another? Did I really want to read a book whose cover text ends "Are the extremists onto something? Or has he become one of Them?" Instead I bought a book that promised to help me get better at Spanish and left.

After reading a review Grandpa pointed out to me, I knew I needed to read THEM. It wasn't just 300 or so pages of crazy talk. It was going to tap into the same part of me that went nuts over Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends.

THEM is the chronicle of several years and thousands of miles of journalistic effort. Jon Ronson, a professional journalist and documentary maker from London, gets in deep with various individuals and groups labeled as extremists. He goes beyond simply interviewing them; he becomes their shadow. As the cover text discloses, Ronson delves into the stories of Ku Klux Klansmen, Ruby Ridge survivors, and a bizarre pagan owl ritual. Though he usually finds that the individuals he meets are more human than they are given credit for, he also sees darker sides of otherwise smooth talkers and occasionally finds himself in a horrifying situation. Imagine a Jew at a Jihad training camp or Aryan Nations!

Although most of the individuals Ronson explores are on the far right, both the right-wing separatists and left-wing radicals fear one group - multinationalists who secretly control the world. After hearing so much about this secret society of politicians and corporate leaders, Ronson decides to research them as well. His investigation and its outcome are an exhilarating subplot to this tale of extremists.

The book begins with Omar Bakri, a Muslim fundamentalist who aims to overthrow the British government and establish an Islamic state in its stead. Bakri condemns a wide array of accepted Western practices, from showing a woman's legs on a package of pantyhose to the practice of homosexuality. He even claims at one point to be Bin Laden's man in London, only to wonder later why anyone would think he was serious about this.

Bakri frequently uses the media to help him arouse people's fear or anger, only to later back down from any true action or simply deny involvement. At one point, Bakri is planning Britain's largest Islamic rally to be held at the London Arena. He tells the Arena that it will be an educational conference, puts a deposit down on the 14,000 capacity arena, and leaves. After announcing the rally and pasting up posters, some even calling for a Jihad, the media attention was phenomenal. The public outcry overwhelming. When the London Arena informed him of their fees for extra security at the event, Bakri claimed that he had no control of the individuals who put up those Jihad posters. His phone number at the bottom of each poster, he claimed, must have been found in the phone book. Once significant attention had been drawn to the Islamic rally, Bakri cancelled it due to his claim that the London Arena had blackmailed him with the exorbitant security charges. Ronson presents an excellent case that holding the rally was never actually part of the plan.

Later, Bakri uses the "phone book" excuse on Ronson to claim that he was not involved in another poster campaign, this one calling for the murder of all Jews. Despite Ronson's experience with Bakri using this as a mere cover in the past, Bakri still fell back on his old standby. Throughout Ronson's initial relationship with Bakri, Bakri seems to be more of a clown than a danger. As time creates a distance between them, the clowning appears to be more likely an act designed to divert blame from Bakri. But, in truth, there is no way to tell. The man and his motives are pure enigma.

The characters portrayed in THEM all share some of Bakri's puzzling qualities. Stories of government control which seem far-fetched at first are shown to have some merit. Militiamen defy their stereotypes while the Anti-Defamation League stretches anti-Semitism to inoffensive "codewords". There are few black and white cases in extremism.

Reading THEM in today's overly security conscious environment provides even more to puzzle over. With the United States usurping individual liberties with even less cause than at Ruby Ridge, can anyone - guided by reason rather than 9-11 terror - not see the government as a potential danger to its people? Are the individuals we blame accurately portrayed by the government and the media, or is this another case of exaggerating their unpopular beliefs to provide a more unsympathetic villain?

Extremism can be found in many benign sources with the crucial link being a fight against a seemingly insurmountable enemy. The ADL has a very real battle against anti-Semitism, but has their struggle created a false sense of a more pervasive enemy? The separatists also feel like they are at war - war with the government and society at large. Has that caused their enemies to be equally exaggerated? Even in myself, I find the seeds of extremist thought when the idea of the long hard struggle for equality looms large. Perhaps unfettered extremism is so hard to find because extremism can be seen whenever anyone stands up out of their victimhood. Extremism doesn't seem so easily defined because in some cases it's easier to see the legitimate root of extreme thoughts than in others. And now and then we find an individual whose cause we thoroughly abhor, but still we can see the humanity in them. THEM forces the reader into a forbidden thought process: Is there anything wrong with being extremist? And what separates the dangerous from the merely kooky anyway?