Hey, this is great. We’re all set now. I can retire from this work and pursuing my lifelong dream of learning to play the fluegelhorn. From AP, with thanks to Kemaste:
MECCA, Saudi Arabia: Leaders and ministers of more than 50 Muslim countries urged their nations to fight terrorism and called for moderation within Islam, as they opened a summit Wednesday in a palace overlooking Islam’s holiest shrine.
“We do not have the luxury of blaming others for our own problems. It is high time we addressed our national and regional problems with courage, sincerity and openness,” said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Turkish secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Right you are, Ihsanoglu.
“We should fight terrorism by dealing with its roots and causes, whether committed by individuals, groups or states,” Ihsanoglu said. “Terrorism is a crime that every Muslim should fight.”…
Ekmeleddin, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
“The future of humanity depends on this part of the world,” Ihsanoglu said. “What is going on in the Islamic world has dire consequences elsewhere.”
Right again.
“Lack of moderation is one of the main sources of instability and chaos in the modern world,” the OIC secretary general said. He stressed the need to combat poverty, illiteracy and corruption in the Muslim world, saying that “when these issues are not addressed properly by legitimate means, they are used as an excuse to push for extreme agendas.”
Oh. You mean, it’s all about poverty and illiteracy? Despite the fact that study after study has shown that jihad terrorists are generally more affluent and better educated than their peers?
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, speaking at the opening session, also called for moderation. “Islamic unity can’t be achieved by the spilling of blood, as deviant people claim by their dark ideas,” he said….
Oh. So Islamic unity must be attained by peaceful means. But that doesn’t say anything about the restoration of the caliphate and imposition of Sharia, for which the jihadists are fighting. Is that “deviant” too, Your Majesty?
And there’s another problem: at least one nation (Qatar) doesn’t even want to go on record saying the Muslim nations (or “the Muslim nation”) must fight “terrorism.”
“The Muslim nation is facing great challenges and enormous dangers targeting its cultural foundations and religious creeds,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Tuesday. The summit “will forge a comprehensive plan to overcome the obstacles that block the aspirations of our nation.”
Abdelaziz Belkhadem, a top adviser of Bouteflika, said the summit was expected to produce a code of conduct for Islamic countries to counter terrorism.
But delegates at Tuesday’s meeting said there were disagreements over the issue, with Qatar and Jordan at odds over the wording of part of the summit’s final communique.
A draft of the document stated that terrorism goes against Islam’s teachings and “all necessary measures must be taken against it.”
Jordan proposed the text clearly state that Islamic nations must fight terrorism, while Qatar was insisting on milder wording, with delegates saying it was arguing that tough wording might be interpreted as yielding to American pressure.
All that suggests that what they end up condemning is not likely to be jihad violence at all. And nothing in this article suggests that they addressed or are interested in addressing the root causes of that violence in the Qur’an and Sunnah.
I guess I won’t be getting to that fluegelhorn anytime soon.