Radical Islamic Terror – It’s All Frank Herbert’s Fault

Robin Zhang - October 9th, 2008 in Commentary 0 votes Vote Up! Vote Down!

A voice from the troop called out: ”Needs a naming, Stil.”

Stilgar nodded, tugging at his beard. ”I see strength in you…like the strength beneath a pillar. You shall be known as Usul, the base of the pillar. This is your secrete name, your troop name. We of Sietch Tabr may use it, but none other may so presume…Usul”

First, a short timeline:

1965 – The widely popular sci-fi novel “Dune” is published.

1979 – Osama Bin Laden and his mujahedeen fighters go off to fight off the Soviets in Afghanistan.

1988 – The terror organization Al Qaeda is founded.

How are Herbert and Bin Laden related you ask? Just look at Dune’s protagonist Paul Atreides (later Paul Muad’dib) and you’ll find many uncanny similarities to the head of Al Qaeda.

Paul Muad’Dib and Osama both come from influential families and go off to fight foreign lands
Obviously the environment; ‘Dune’ refers to the planet also known as Arrakis, an arid desert wasteland that would be completely useless if not for it being the only source of spice in the galaxy. Obviously the Middle East is an arid place as well with lots of deserts.
“Al Qaeda” translates roughly to “The Base” in Arabic. ‘Usul’, another of Muad’Dib’s names, means “The Base (of the Pillar)” in Fremen.
They are both fighting against militarily superior enemies (House Corrino and Harkonnen as opposed to the Americans and the Soviets). Consequently, both resort to excessive use of guerilla tactics.
Muad’Dib’s struggle is repeatedly characterized as a jihad; obviously so is Bin Laden’s
They both fight alongside indigenous allies who prove to be more numerous and more formidable than their enemies initially believed (the Fremen and the Taliban, respectively)
Both Paul Muad’Dib and Osama Bin Laden were once hailed as freedom fighters, but public opinion turns against them as their jihads continue to become more violent. Bin Laden and his fighters were funded by the CIA and hailed as freedom fighters during the 80s, but obviously our view of him has swung towards the other direction as he has decided to target the United States, and specifically civilians. On the other hand, Muad’Dib’s overthrow of the ‘establishment’ Padashah Emperor was first met with enthusiasm, but once he made his intentions clear to launch a galaxy-wide Jihad in Dune Messiah, even many of the Fremen grew weary of his rule.
Both the Fremen and Al Qaeda/The Taliban use cave networks extensively as logistical and tactical systems. The Taliban and Al Qaeda escaped over the border to Pakistan thanks to their extensive cave networks in Tora Bora, and the Fremen use their caves – among other things – as a way to hide their true military might.
A valuable commodity is at stake, both in Muad’Dib’s jihads and the current War on Terror. In the former, it is the spice melange, which is the only way to travel between the million star systems of Human Civilization in AD 10191 thanks to the Guild Navigators and their colossal carrier-transports, the Highliners. In the modern world, it is oil. Sure, we don’t need a highly specialized Guild Navigator to fly us from country to country, but oil is still essential for almost all of the long range traveling that people do today.
Both valuable commodities change people. With spice, you get blue-within-blue eyes and unnatural long life… or in the case of the Guild Navigators, a horribly misshapen homunculus. With oil, the changes are more to do with a person’s insides; the physical appearance of the Guild Navigators is nothing compared to the dark, ominous recesses of Dick Cheney’s soul after 30 years in the oil industry.
With regards to both valuable commodities, both Al Qaeda and Muad’Dib’s Fremen have attempted to disrupt its supply. Al Qaeda in Iraq has attempted on multiple occasions to disrupt the supply of oil in Iraq, while the Fremen disrupted spice production on Arrakis to force the attention of Emperor Shaddam IV.

With these uncanny similarities, I would also like to propose that Frank Herbert is not only alive and well, but probably a time-traveling robot as well. And if anyone else here is a fan of the Dune series, I’m sure there are even more parallels that I overlooked.

Tags: Al Qaeda, dune, Frank Herbert, fundamentalist islam, Osama Bin Laden, Paul Atreides, Paul Muad'Dib, terrorism

Loren Petrich says:

October 9, 2008 at 7:05 am

As I was reading that list, I thought: spice = oil very quickly, then I found it in the list.

Another analogy: the inhabitants of Arrakis wear stillsuits to reclaim water from their bodies, while Middle Eastern countries have invested heavily in desalination technology, sometimes producing much of their fresh water that way.

Some oil-enriched Arab countries are trying to diversify their economies, notably, the United Arab Emirates, which is now a big bauxite miner. And Dubai has became an Arab Singapore and an Arab Las Vegas, a major business center and a big tourist trap.
David Dunak says:

January 18, 2010 at 7:05 pm

I would submit the comparison of the words “Iraq” and “Arrakis”.