The Washington Post seems to see Abu Theeb’s abandonment of violence for political action as a positive development, and from the standpoint of those he might have murdered, it most assuredly is. However, the Post doesn’t pay much attention to the fact that Abu Theeb is working for the same goal by different means, and that that goal, a Sharia state in Iraq, bodes ill for non-Muslims and women there. Would the bare fact that a Sharia state was democratically elected make it a good thing? Was Hitler’s regime a good thing since his party received a plurality of votes and he was duly asked to form a government by the German President?
“The New Sunni Jihad: ‘A Time for Politics’: Tour With Iraqi Reveals Tactical Change,” from The Washington Post, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
NORTH OF BAGHDAD — For weeks before Iraq’s constitutional referendum this month, Iraqi guerrilla Abu Theeb traveled the countryside just north of Baghdad, stopping at as many Sunni Arab houses and villages as he could. Each time, his message to the farmers and tradesmen he met was the same: Members of the disgruntled Sunni minority should register to vote — and vote against the constitution.
“It is a new jihad,” said Abu Theeb, a nom de guerre that means “Father of the Wolf,” addressing a young nephew one night before the vote. “There is a time for fighting, and a time for politics.”…
“Politics for us is like filthy, dead meat,” he said, referring to pork, which is eschewed by observant Muslims. “We are not allowed to eat it, but if you are crossing through a desert and your life depends on it, God says it’s okay.” Even if politics gets him a result he likes, he said, he will continue to wage war against the Americans, because he views them as occupiers….