Funny thing: last night I received a hate note that said: "I am appalled at the ignorance demonstrated by the intent and content of this site. Your definition of jihad is incorrect: it means 'stuggle' in arabic, not 'Holy War' (many will even say it is difficult to define)." Of course, I have never defined jihad flatly as "holy war"; at left I state that jihad means many things, and ironically, just the other day I mentioned in a post that jihad means "struggle." But don't give those who charge ignorance credit for any intelligence: the charge that non-Muslims are actually ignorant of Islam, and don't know that jihad really means nothing violent, is common from jihadist Muslims and Islamic apologists, although it flies in the face of the reality of stories like these. In the mosques, radical Muslims are preaching jihad, and they don't mean spiritual struggle -- as this young convert discovered (as he evidently embraced wholeheartedly the idea of jihad as warfare against unbelievers). From the Casper Star Tribune, with thanks to Ali Dashti:
A Wyoming Technical Institute student charged with attempting to help terrorists in Somalia reportedly said he wished he had flown a hijacked plane during the Sept. 11 attacks, federal authorities said.Mark Robert Walker, 19, of Rochester, N.Y., had become interested in Islam at a mosque in his hometown, said one official familiar with the case, according to the Washington Post.
"He seems like a lost guy who got obsessed with jihad," the official told the newspaper.
Federal prosecutors accuse Walker of planning to supply Ittihad al Islamiya -- which wants an Islamic government in Somalia -- with night-vision goggles and bullet-proof vests. Charging documents say he used the computer of a roommate at the Laramie school, also known as WyoTech, to make the arrangements.
Walker was arrested Saturday while crossing into El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where prosecutors say he was using an Internet cafe to line up a meeting with someone known as "Khalid" at the El Paso airport Saturday afternoon, reported the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, N.Y.
That newspaper also quoted an FBI source as saying Walker was posting on an Internet forum under the names of "Abdullah" and "Abdullah313." Among the comments he allegedly made: "I hate the U.S. gov't; I wish I could have been flying one of the planes on Sept. 11."
He also posted messages saying he planned to travel to Somalia and fight.
"He's not a major terrorist or a threat to us," FBI spokeswoman Andra Simmons said. "In the end, he's probably better off in a U.S. prison than fighting jihad in a foreign country."
Walker had reportedly been in Laramie since August. He had moved from the West Coast to New York state in June with his parents.
The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in El Paso said Walker fled Wyoming after his roommate told him that he had informed law enforcement officers about finding messages to terrorist groups on a computer that was shared by both roommates.
Related- What people like Keithjoy and Mega2004 always fail to notice with John Ashcroft:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/terencejeffrey/tj20041111.shtml
this reminds me of the summer of 2002, when there was much talk in new york about how perhaps iraq would be the next bowling pin to fall after afghanistan (yes, many new yorkers have selective memory and have forgotten that we were pro-war until the rise of howard dean and consistent antiwar propaganda from the ny times finally took its toll and made many erstwhile serious new yorkers into fashionable trend followers again). i was sitting outside a cafe with friends on houston street, and some young guy at a table next to me said to the young lady with him, "you know who i really admire? i really admire muhammed attah." i was so stunned, i could not believe what i'd just heard. (incidentally, this was back when i was still drinking, and had i had a few more in me, i'm sure i would have spent the night in jail for wringing this guy's neck)
I have a naive proposal for this 'jihad' business, 'what is surely the most misunderstood notion in Islam'...Oh, sorry, that was Michael Brannigan.
OK. Try to put all of your preconceptions about Islam aside, if that is possible. No Espositoites whispering, 'Jihad is a struggle not holy war...'. And nobody else, like the Ayatollah Komeini, telling you that Islam requires that you 'kill, kill, kill' the Infidels. (And folks blame Robert for giving 'Jihad' a bad name. And Islamic 'Jihad' maintains a quiet monastary in the Sinai desert where muhajadeen search for the peace of Allah in their souls.)
Back to the point, a point for non-Arabic speaking Infidels, although I think this would probably work in Arabic as well, if the English translation is a translation within sanity.
Just read the Qu'ran. (and we will set aside the hadiths and sira for the moment) And read it the way it tells you to read it, 'taking everything quite seriously' (you see, I did not even say 'literally', although that is pretty much what it says). Just read with common sense, with a critical, clear mind, that can think coherent thoughts, and with a personality that is not dysfunctional or psychologically distraught. Just read. You don't need to know what Jihad is. You don't need to know exactly what every word means. Just read, then come back here, and tell us all about 'the struggle' for peace or for contentment, or the afterlife, or a better society, or whatever.
And remember, do not cut the Qu'ran too many breaks of interpretation, which one must do from the first page no matter where one starts because the book is just plain looney toones.
8:1 "They ask you about the spoils (Of the Battle of Badr, Dawood trans.). Say: 'The spoils belong to God and the Apostle. Therefore, have fear of God and end your disputes. Obey God and the Apostle if you are true believers."
and a little later,
8:12 "God revealed His will to the angels, saying: 'I shall be with you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the Infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers!'
and a little later,
8:36 "Tell the unbelievers that if they mend their ways their past shall be forgiven; but if they persist in sin, let them reflect upon the fate of their forefathers. Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme."
And so it goes.
Remember to take it seriously now. This is not a Hollywood movie or something is a land 'long ago and far away'. That is not how the Qu'ran says you should take it, and if you do that, you have not followed the instructions of the book.
Please do that professor Brannigan and others out there who want to tell us all about the 'ethos' of the Qu'ran, the 'creed of peace', and the 'struggle', jihad.
I can remember when young disaffected American men were into sex, drugs and rock and roll - now they become the whores of jihadist pimps selling murder and hatred.
hey where are all of the jihad forums so that we can all go and try to comment on them. If they would let us.
"I can remember when young disaffected American men were into sex, drugs and rock and roll - now they become the whores of jihadist pimps selling murder and hatred."
What do you expect when we have thrown over our own faith in exchange for hedonism, gutted all our mainline churches of any moral content. That is why some of us religious-right "nuts" cling so fiercely to our beliefs and try to pass them down to our children, while the "enlightened" world mocks us. To make faith last for generations you need structure, ritual, rules, all the things about organized religion that our culture hates. So we abandon it, leaving a moral vacuum, and it is replaced by nihilism, and ultimately by a more aggressive, unapologetic religion that dwarfs the transgressions of older religion in sheer malignancy. No, none of our Crusades or Inquisitions can compare with jihad's march across three continents after Mohammed's death.
I have said here before, I believe I listed 10 items that would make Islam and jihad appealing to disaffected young guys like this one, including sanctioned violence, rape, male domination, polygamy, exotica like cool clothes and strange names...what have you. The modern Church of Do-Your-Own-Thing can't hold a candle to it. Add that factor to Nation of Islam, Black Muslims and whatever other home-grown groups we have and we got a real war on our hands.
I wonder how many of these so called young dissafected Americans would have turbed on their own society by embracing the darkness of islam and praising their murderous acts back in the fifties?
what has happened to morality and education since then?
They have being seriously ERODED by the secular left who hate christianity and moral principles.
So young people devoid of guidance and looking for moral security wiil turn to ISLAM to provide what the leftists have taken away from them over the last 40 years.
And some of thise will embrace violent Jihad.
Islam provides the morality and guidance, taken away by the secular society that has been forced upon us by the intelligentsia. Those self hating New York thinkers have opened those gates for Islam.
You make some valid points, Cassandra, but the appeal of Islam in these cases often has more to do with a young man's individual sense of impotence, inadequacy or powerlessness. As we know, acts of violence and rape are often an attempt to overcome this sense of impotency through the act of overpowering another individual. Most certainly the sanctioned violence and misogyny within Islam would appeal to a young man suffering from such inferiority complexes because it provides him with a permissive belief system that encourages such behavior.
George posts: I wonder how many of these so called young dissafected Americans would have turned on their own society by embracing the darkness of islam and praising their murderous acts back in the fifties?
Based on my experience, I would dare say virtually none. The nature of rebelliousness has become frighteningly more deadly and virulently anti-American than it was back in the Fifties. Indeed we have the nihilistic Left to thank for this cancerous malignancy.
Aw, c'mon guys.
That was a classic CIA infiltration operation that local law enforcement bungled and prematurely exposed......!!
/sarcasm off
Why is this a crime? Does just being born in the US mean that you've pledged allegiance to the nation and it's armies?
I know many are going to say we did it everyday as children but that is not a binding contract as it is made with some prior to the age of majority.
I'm pretty sure I never recited the 'Pledge of Allegiance' since sixth grade or about 12 years old.