Projection

This is a term psychologist use to describe how certain people project their own views on others. For example someone who is feeling insecure and uneasy with their progress in life might say that someone they just met thinks they are flaky even though the thought never crossed that persons mind. James Taranto demonstrates how some do the same thing with al Qaeda:

"Venezuela's defense minister said Thursday that the nation would reinforce security measures after a branch of al Qaeda called for attacks on suppliers of oil to the United States," Reuters reports from Caracas. But one Venezuelan official isn't worried:

Luis Cabrera, a military adviser to the president, earlier had questioned the authenticity of the threat in comments published by local media.He said it was illogical that "al Qaeda, which is against North American imperialism, would go against a state that is fighting, though in a different way, against that hegemony."

Cabrera may be right that al Qaeda views Hugo Chavez's Venezuela as a de facto ally and thus fairly low on its hit list. But what's interesting about his comment is how he ascribes his own ideology to the terror group. As we noted in September, Chavez himself, speaking before the U.N. General Assembly, slyly claimed the 9/11 attacks as an example of "rising up against American imperialism."

In truth, al Qaeda's leaders do not see themselves fundamentally as fighting against "American imperialism," much less for Third World socialism. Theirs is a movement based in religion; their grievance against America is infidelity, not imperialism.

There is a certain ideological parochialism among many on the hard left (and some on the right, if the reviews of Dinesh D'Souza's new book are accurate). For them, al Qaeda is essentially an inkblot. Recall Michael Moore's immediate reaction to 9/11: He was flummoxed that al Qaeda would attack a part of the country that had not supported George W. Bush--as if the only motive for the attack that he could understand was American domestic politics....

There is more.

Some even projected their views on God to explain 9-11. The best explanation is the simplest. Al Qaeda is made up of religious bigots who are lashing out at those who do not share their weird religious beliefs.