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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

“They see their attacks on civilians as a renewal of the Crusades”

Jul 3, 2007 8:07 am By Robert Spencer

“The jihad continues: Islamic terrorists again show they mean what they say,” an unsigned editorial in the Charlotte Observer, repeats standard popular pieties in the face of the latest jihad terror plots, thereby showing the thickness of the fog of political correctness and ignorance that prevails in the mainstream media today:

The terrorist attacks in England and Scotland failed to accomplish their murderous goal, but they provided more evidence that Islamic terrorists mean what they say: They think it is their religious duty to kill us. They see their attacks on civilians as a renewal of the Crusades. It is their jihad — a struggle in the name of God.

They most certainly do not see their attacks on civilians as a renewal of the Crusades. They hate the Crusades and routinely call the American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan Crusaders. The fact that this editorial writer refers to the Crusades in one sentence and to jihad in the next shows either that he or she thought they were essentially equivalent — although one effectively lasted 200 years and the other has gone on for 1400 years and counting, and one conquered temporarily a few bits of the Holy Land while the other conquered about a third of the world at one time or another and has held much of it — or that he or she thought it best not to be “Islamophobic” by mentioning jihad alone, and so dragged the Crusades into it.

In this war, it is important to be clear about the identity of the enemy. It is not the Muslim faith, nor is it terrorism — a tactic, not a foe. The enemy is a group of would-be killers associated with al-Qaida, an alliance of militant Sunni groups.

OK, so it’s just Al-Qaeda. That evidently leaves out Hizballah and other Shi’ite jihadists, as well as jihad groups around the world that have no apparent ties to Al-Qaeda. It leaves out also the “sudden jihad syndrome” types and freelance jihadists who are motivated by their own reading of the Qur’an. Of course the enemy is not “the Muslim faith,” but the enemy is motivated by elements of the Muslim faith — and, as former jihadist Hassan Butt pointed out recently, if we don’t address that fact, we will never be getting to the root of the problem.

Al-Qaida is an international organization of loosely affiliated cells that carry out attacks against Western nations in an attempt to advance Islamic fundamentalism. Its objectives include the elimination of foreign influence in Muslim nations, the destruction of Israel and the creation of a new caliphate — a globally powerful Islamic state governed by religious law….

Yes, and they appeal to peaceful Muslims by showing the Islamic roots of such aspirations. But we can’t talk about that, now, can we?

These are not the sorts of terrorists who pop up from time to time in this country — here an anti-abortion zealot who bombs clinics, there a foe of the central government who blows up a federal building.

Yes, for one thing, there are several hundred thousand more of them than there are of those guys.

They are trained, loosely organized religious zealots with no goal except to serve God by killing us. They do not negotiate. They do not compromise. The only way to stop them is by cutting off their funding, disrupting their communications, rooting out their secret cells and using whatever force is required to thwart their lethal plans.

Our war is not with Islam. In fact, these terrorists have murdered more Muslims than Christians. Most Muslims do not share their ideology and are appalled by this crazed corruption of the faith as peacefully practiced by millions around the world.

If they are indeed appalled by this, why don’t we see them condemning Osama and his ilk with the same vehemence they have displayed in recent years in condemning Salman Rushdie, the Pope, and some cartoonists in Denmark?

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