He repeated the administration argument that the enemy is not "terrorism," because terrorism is a "tactic," and not terror, because terror is a "state of mind" -- though Brennan's title, deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, includes the word "terrorism" in it. But then Brennan said that the word "jihad" should not be applied either.
"Nor do we describe our enemy as 'jihadists' or 'Islamists' because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children," Brennan said.
The technical, broadest definition of jihad is a "struggle" in the name of Islam and the term does not connote "holy war" for all Muslims. However, jihad frequently connotes images of military combat or warfare, and some of the world's most wanted terrorists including Usama bin Laden commonly use the word to call for war against the West.
If these folks aren't Islamists, why do most scream Allah Akbar right before executing their deed? Why do they speak of a Jihad and praise Allah at every turn? The administration can't seem to wrap their arms around a basic fact. They are certainly twisting Islam. They aren't the first to twist a religion. They aren't the first to start holy wars by twisting a religion. In fact, Islam isn't the first religion to be twisted and turned into a war.
If Brennan was around during the Crusades, I could imagine him struggling to tell the world that the enemy wasn't Christian. Of course, they were and in much the same way, Christianity was twisted. Are we supposed to ignore that it was Christianity as opposed to all other religions that was twisted during the Crusades.
Religion has been the centerpiece for many struggles and all sorts of deaths. Hitler targeted Jews because they were inferior. Are we supposed to ignore this as well? The center piece of Hamas/Hezbollah's long term war against Israel is that they view Judaism as a wholly inferior religion and all those that practice deserve death. Is that not a holy war?
It's time to call a spade a spade. When a terrorists proclaims they are killing civilians in the name of Allah, Islam, and Jihad, that makes them radical Islamists, radical Jihadists, and it also means this war has a significant religious component. In fact, that's no reflection on Islam itself. The fact that someone twists a religion for evil is a reflection on the person himself and not on the religion. That the administration can't bring itself to recognize all this is troubling to say the least.
7 comments:
So the next step is to ask ourselves: who is doing the twisting? For whom is Islamic Fundamentalism beneficial?
Cui bono: who benefits?
It benefits those that twist it first and foremost and besides that I don't know what you mean.
In early 1996 there was a series of suicide bombings in Israel over a ten day period.
During a lull in those bombings a Palestinian drove his car into a crowd of people at a bus stop, killing one and injuring others.
He got out of his car and was gunned down by one or two bystanders. The news attributed the shooting to nervousness.
Of course eyewitnesses said that he got out of his car and yelled "Allahu Akbar." No he wasn't killed by itchy fingered Israeli extremists. He gave them reason to believe he was still a threat.
What I am trying to say is who is doing the twisting? What do they hope to gain from recruiting an army of poor uneducated people to kill and be killed?
Spit it out AG. Don't speak in puzzles. Just say what's on your mind.
they are called wahabis. They spread this doctrine all over the world via building mosques and indocrinating the poor youths. Other than the rich OBL, all of the other terrorists are poor. The twist is to please the masters....oil shieks who can get offended. GWB should have gone after pakistan and Saudi arabia instead he chose paper tiger Iraq and nameless afghanistan. We will never get rid of the terrorists as long as we are patronizing pakistan and SA by twisting the words to please them
Yes, I agree. Its kind of like the Christian atrocities committed in the name of Christ a long time ago.
Again, they were called are were Christians no doubt about it.
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