Islam's Appeal to Young Men

Raymond Ibrahim, at Victor Hanson's Private Papers, offers an interesting and plausible, I think, reason for why young men are attracted to Islam:

There is another subtle factor that makes Islam attractive. Traditional masculine roles are well preserved in Islam. Indeed, manly honor, courage, patriarchy, and a sharp division between the sexes are at the core of Islamic culture. This may be appealing to Western men who find it difficult to express their “manhood” in increasingly neutered societies. Harvey Mansfield, author of Manliness, defines that term as “a quality both bad and good, mostly male, often intolerant, irrational, and ambitious. Our gender-neutral society does not like it but cannot get rid of it.”

Read the rest here.

Fightin' Clean

From No Left Turns, this quote of a Beverly Hillbillies show:

Granny: "Remember what William Jennings Bryan said, ’fight hard but fight clean’?"
Jethro: "But you ain’t fightin’ clean Granny"
Granny: "Course I ain’t, William Jennings Bryan was a loser!"