Can you imagine the Washington Post giving a platform to someone who writes honestly about how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism? Can you imagine the WaPo running a piece calling upon mosques in the U.S. to institute programs teaching against the understanding of Islam held by the Islamic State? I can’t, either.
According to the Telegraph in November 2013, Ahrar al-Sham “often fights alongside ISIS though it does not share its al-Qaeda ideology.”
The Washington Post has long been a disgrace to journalism. Now it is just becoming more obvious.
“Washington Post runs article from Syrian Islamist group,” AFP, July 11, 2015:
Washington (AFP) – The Washington Post ran an opinion piece from Syrian Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham criticizing US policies, giving an unusual platform to a group that has allied with supporters of Al-Qaeda.
The piece, posted online late Friday and penned by the group’s foreign relations head Labib Al Nahhas, excoriates the strategy of US President Barack Obama’s administration in Syria, calling it an “abject failure.”
In its quest to not support radical groups in Syria, American policy has so narrowly defined the term “moderate” that it excludes most opposition groups in the country, including Ahrar al-Sham, Nahhas said.
Nahhas says Ahrar al-Sham has been “falsely accused” of being close to radical group Al-Qaeda and “unfairly vilified” by the Obama administration.
The Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, one of the most powerful rebel groups in Syria, has allied with Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra in fighting against the Syrian regime and the Islamic State extremist group….
Nahhas said the US needs to stop taking such a narrow view of the conflict and start recognizing the legitimate mainstream Syrian opposition like Ahrar al-Sham.
“Stuck inside their own bubble, White House policymakers have allocated millions of US taxpayer dollars to support failed CIA efforts to support so-called ‘moderate’ forces in Syria,” he wrote.
Washington should “admit that the Islamic State’s extremist ideology can be defeated only through a homegrown Sunni alternative —- with the term ‘moderate’ defined not by CIA handlers but by Syrians themselves.”