Back before the U.S. Government went completely insane, I was speaking at a State Department briefing on Islam and jihad and got into conversation with a career diplomat who was also speaking at the sessions. In passing he referred to jihad terrorists as “Muslims” and then looked embarrassed, stopped himself, and said, “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t call them Muslims…”
Well, what are they? Jehovah’s Witnesses? Not only are they Muslims, but they are the Muslims who identify themselves as the most devout, observant, and correct of Muslims. To ignore this is to ignore the motivating force and defining ideology of those who have vowed to destroy us. But that is, of course, exactly what the U.S. Government is doing, much more now than when that well-meaning gentleman said those words to me. And this story is yet another indication of how far out of focus our response is to the jihad threat: we take for granted on an official level that virtually all Muslims abhor Osama bin Laden and disapprove of his terror attacks. The fact that many Muslims revere him as a hero is absolutely inexplicable according to the official U.S. Government understanding of Islam, jihad, and terrorism.
“Pak militants vow ‘jihad’ to mark Osama’s death anniversary,” by Rezaul H Laskar for PTI, May 8:
Militants in Pakistan’s lawless North Waziristan tribal region on Tuesday distributed pamphlets vowing a ‘jihad’ to mark the first anniversary of the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Masked and armed militants distributed the pamphlet in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency that US and Afghan officials describe as a stronghold of al-Qaeda and Taliban elements.
“Let us pledge today that we will continue our jihad and sacrifice our lives and property in the name of Allah like Sheikh Osama did,” said the pamphlets that were dated May 2, the anniversary of the killing of the al-Qaeda leader in a unilateral US raid.
“A year since Sheikh Osama bin Laden embraced martyrdom, the enemy America is repenting. It is facing defeat and Pakistan’s future is also bleak,” the pamphlet said….
Pakistan has resisted US pressure to conduct an operation to flush out militants from North Waziristan, saying its forces are overstretched.…