• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

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

The “pitiless logic of jihad”

Jan 15, 2008 2:59 pm By Robert Spencer

Ignatieff has seen the jihad up close, and he believes hearts-and-minds development projects will fix it — once again showing that observation alone, when not properly grounded in study of the values and principles of the culture at hand, can sometimes lead one astray. How will development projects address the Taliban’s insistence that what they are doing is carrying out the law of the one true God?

“When Iggy met the Taliban,” by Colin Freeze in the Globe and Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

It’s a pithy paragraph, capturing as it does the Taliban’s contempt for international conventions and their predilection for medieval punishments.

The central image is very well crafted, too. One can almost imagine the blood-spattered rope circle, the vacant swinging space, which once held the neck of the fallen ruler who was lynched for being a superpower’s stooge.

“Three nights before I arrived, the Taliban had dragged him out of the [United Nations] guesthouse, castrated him and beaten him to death and hanged his pulpy body from the stanchion of a traffic warden’s observation tower. As I drove into the city, only the noose, flecked with blood, remained swinging from the tower.”

So wrote Michael Ignatieff in 1997 in an essay for The New Yorker. At the time, he was a celebrated writer — one who happened to arrive in Kabul just as the Taliban was taking over and the world’s security situation was about to under go some seismic shifts. It was at this point that the writer became acquainted with what he called the “pitiless logic of jihad.”

The noose had been used to hang a Soviet-backed former Afghan president, Muhammed Najibullah. His final indignities were a major coup for the Taliban, who by then had captured three-quarters of the country, and were well en route to implementing what they regarded as God’s law.

Mr. Ignatieff actually met Taliban fighters face to face during his visit, experiences reflected in the 1997 essay that puts what he did and saw into the context of a big-picture rumination: How should the international community deal with the rise of remorseless irregular warriors, who care nothing about human rights nor the conventions of war?

Fast forward a decade later, and the question still hangs.

Mr. Ignatieff was back in Afghanistan this past weekend. This time, as a top Western politician, representing the Official Opposition of a country that has sent over 2,500 soldiers to help fight the Taliban.

Mr. Ignatieff, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, was travelling with his former political rival, Leader Stephane Dion. Their shared message was that Canada is going to want the soldiers back, sooner rather than later.

While the U.S. military and NATO allies, including Canada, have beaten back the Taliban over the past six years, the jihadists stubbornly linger. Now, the Liberals are pushing an agenda to ratchet down dangerous Canadian combat missions in the Taliban’s heartland, and crank up the less dangerous work, like development projects. (The position is fully articulated in an eight-page document released last week — www.liberal.ca/story_13465_e.aspx .)

Because Mr. Ignatieff has hit hawkish notes in the past, he was asked within minutes of landing at Kandahar about whether he supported his party”s calls to start beating swords into ploughshares. “I wouldn’t be on this airfield if I didn’t,” he told reporters who asked whether he supported his party”s position.

While working with Mr. Dion in Kabul, the Liberal second-in-command said they both made sure that President Karzai got the message from a potential Canadian government-in-waiting “The key thing that the president understands, and the ministers understand, is that sooner or later this country is going to stand on its feet,” Mr. Ignatieff said.

For his part, President Karzai was gracious, but seemed unconvinced of the wisdom of the Liberal position. In a statement following the meeting, Mr. Karzai expressed thanks for Canada’s sacrifices, but pointedly added that “the events of September 11 serves us well in reminding ourselves that not fighting terrorism head-on can have disastrous consequences for Afghanistan, the region and the world at large.”

Not long after President Karzai’s statement, the Taliban issued a statement of their own.

It was called “Martyrdom attack preformed in Capital Kabul city.”

On Monday. gunmen killed eight inside a Kabul hotel. The Islamists claimed the attack was a noteworthy blow against “Western-backed puppet government, as well as foreign embassies and businesses.”

Read it all.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Clarino on Chief Rabbi of UK Says It’s ‘Alarming’ That 44% of Muslims Are Anti-Semitic
  • Infidel on Erdogan: ‘Turks must defend the rights of Jerusalem, even with their lives’ for ‘the honor of the Islamic nation’
  • Michael Copeland on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • Walter Sieruk on Iranian top dogs approve bill to end UN nuclear inspections, increase enrichment
  • Dude on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.