So I've spent much of my career trying my best to immerse myself in the world of political Islam. That requires doing something rather simple: sitting down, talking to, and getting to know actual, real-live Islamists (God forbid!). We don't have to like Islamists, but we do have to understand them. That has to be our starting point. What I've come to appreciate more over time is the power of religion as an "independent variable." In other words, we shouldn't dismiss the notion that someone might want to join the Muslim Brotherhood not for power, material, or economic interests, but perhaps because they want to "get into heaven." And what could be more "rational" than desiring entry into paradise? It might sounds stupid, simple, and "irrational" to us, but rationality, like so many other things, is in the eye of beholder. - www.reddit.com