Bravo, Wolfowitz. From Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
Parts of the Islamic world were “big on talking about jihad” but fell short in coming to the rescue of Muslim victims of the tsunami, according to the US Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz.
Speaking to a Senate hearing about the international response to the disaster, Mr Wolfowitz also said Europe’s military response could have been greater.
His remarks on Thursday came a day after the White House announced it was nearly tripling its tsunami aid to $US950 million ($A1.2 billion), just larger than the $1 billion in aid and interest-free loans pledged to Indonesia by the Howard Government.
“There’s been very little generosity so far from parts of the Muslim world that are big on talking about jihad and other things, but when 200,000 people – all of them Muslim in the case of Indonesia – died in this catastrophe, there’s not much help forthcoming,” Mr Wolfowitz said.
Jihad is a broad Islamic term generally meaning a struggle for the benefit of the Islamic community. It can be anything from an internal struggle to be a better Muslim to a violent conflict in defence of the faith.
Yes, Reuters, but it’s clear that neither Wolfowitz nor the Muslim groups to which he was referring meant anything but violence by the word.