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Jihad Watch

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

Brookings touts study claiming that “even a basic knowledge of Islam” can “dampen support for Islamist militant groups”

Apr 21, 2016 12:41 pm By Robert Spencer

There are numerous reasons to be suspicious of this study. Here are a few:

  1. This precis of the study contradicts itself. It claims to have found that “knowledge about Islam indeed has a statistically significant and negative impact upon support for the Afghan Taliban and SSP.” But then it notes that “those who espoused the ultra-conservative Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadis traditions were most likely to support the SSP or Afghan Taliban.” Are C. Christine Fair, Jacob S. Goldstein and Ali Hamza then claiming that the Deobandis and Ahl-e-Hadis don’t teach Islam, or teach it only superficially? That would be absurd, as even their pejorative epithet “ultra-conservative” indicates: the Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadis traditions are “ultra-conservative” because they teach strict adherence to the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah. So this study is claiming that the more one knows about Islam, the less likely one is to become a terrorist, and then simultaneously noting that if one learns Islam from those who adhere to it strictly, one is more likely to become a terrorist.
  2. The study is admittedly superficial: “However, the impact of the knowledge variable is all the more surprising when one considers that it includes only rudimentary questions about Islam.” The self-consciously stilted academic writing is unclear, but that sentence appears to be saying that the study asked participants only “rudimentary questions about Islam,” apparently assuming that if respondents didn’t know the answers to these, they must not know much of anything about Islam. But that is not necessarily so, as it doesn’t take into account the possibility that participants may have been unevenly educated, or have simply forgotten the answers to the questions that were asked. In order to determine how much participants really knew about Islam, they would have had to have been questioned in depth, but apparently they were not.
  3. There is abundant evidence that jihadis are influenced by the Qur’an. This goes for the Taliban and the SSP and for all other jihad groups. Take, for example, the Islamic State. It isn’t ignorant of the Qur’an, it quotes it frequently: in threats to blow up the White House and conquer Rome and Spain; in explaining its priorities in the nations it is targeting in jihad; in preaching to Christians after collecting the jizya (a Qur’an-based tax, cf. Qur’an 9:29); in justifying the execution of accused spies; and in its various videos. It has also awarded $10,000 prizes and sex slaves in Qur’an memorization contests. One of its underground lairs was found littered with weapons and copies of the Qur’an. Children in the Islamic State study the Qur’an and get weapons training. One Malaysian Muslim said that the Qur’an led him to join the Islamic State. A Muslima in the U.S. promoted the Islamic State by quoting the Qur’an. An Islamic State propagandist’s parents said of him: “Our son is a devout Muslim. He had learnt the Quran by heart.” A Muslim politician from Jordan said that the Islamic State’s “doctrine stems from the Qur’an and Sunnah.”
  4. The Brookings Institution is heavily funded by Qatar, one of the world’s chief financiers of jihad terror. That funding has turned Brookings into an apologist for jihad, legitimizing Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has praised Hitler and endorsed jihad suicide attacks, and Hamas-linked CAIR’s Nihad Awad, among others. Qatar-funded Brookings would have every reason to obscure the motivating ideology of jihad terrorists and keep Westerners ignorant of and complacent about the true motives and goals of the jihadis, and the nature and magnitude of the threat they present.
  5. The study’s principal author is Christine Fair, a professor at Saudi-funded Georgetown University and fervent purveyor of the establishment myths about Islam, given to deranged rants on Twitter against foes of jihad terror — she has characterized me as a “lunatic” and an “Islamophobe” (her use of the Muslim Brotherhood propaganda term doesn’t speak well of her intellectual honesty or depth) and likened me to Charles Manson, while refusing (of course) to debate me on questions of substance. Her frenzied hatred isn’t personal; I’ve never met her in person. She just becomes utterly unhinged at the prospect of any challenge to her intellectual house of cards — raising once again the question, Why are the loudest proponents of “tolerance” and “peace” so frequently ugly, hateful people?

Christine Fair

“Can being smarter about Islam help Muslims reject terrorist appeals? Maybe.” by C. Christine Fair, Jacob S. Goldstein and Ali Hamza, Brookings, April 18, 2016:

Editors’ Note: There is a popular misconception that the serious study of Islam is a step on the road toward radicalization and terrorism. But a heartening finding indicates that knowledge is good, and that those who know more about Islam are more resistant to extremist appeals. This post originally appeared on Lawfare.

…Inherent in this securitization of a person’s pursuit of Islamic education is the assumption that those who engage in the acquisition of knowledge are security risks. However, there has been no empirical support for the contention that the pursuit of knowledge of Islam correlates with support for terrorism.

We test support for Islamist militancy by instrumentalizing two survey questions that query respondents about their support for two groups, both of which are rooted in Pakistan’s Deobandi interpretative tradition of Islam. The first group is an Islamist organization known variously as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and its offshoot Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which targets Shiite, non-Muslims, and Sufis in Pakistan. The second is the Afghan Taliban. To test the central hypothesis, we constructed an additive knowledge index that measured the respondents’ basic knowledge of Islam employing several questions for which there are no ambiguous responses. (For example, we ask respondents whether or not the Quran specifies how one should pray.) This knowledge index is our principal independent variable. To calculate the final index score for respondents, we summed the respondents’ total score and divided it by five to produce an individual knowledge index that ranges from 0 to 1, with higher index value indicating greater knowledge of Islam. We also included several control variables in our model based upon previous the work of Shafiq and Sinno (2010), including: respondent’s maslak (sectarian commitment), ethnicity, gender, marital status, level of education, age group, and income.What do the data say?

We find that knowledge about Islam indeed has a statistically significant and negative impact upon support for the Afghan Taliban and SSP, although the result is larger and more significant in explaining decreased support for the SSP. However, several control variables—including gender, maslak, ethnicity, and income—are also statistically significant and often larger in magnitude than the knowledge index in explaining support for both the SSP and the Afghan Taliban. We consistently found that the biggest predictor of support for both of these groups is the sectarian orientation of the respondent. Specifically, those who espoused the ultra-conservative Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadis traditions were most likely to support the SSP or Afghan Taliban. This is somewhat surprising given that Ahl-e-Hadis religious scholars have considerable disputes with the Deobandi interpretive tradition. However, the impact of the knowledge variable is all the more surprising when one considers that it includes only rudimentary questions about Islam. Perhaps if our index included more complex measures the salience of this variable would have been greater.

So what?

Even though the sectarian commitment of the survey respondent has greater explanatory power in predicting support for these two militant groups, our results show that even a basic knowledge of Islam can indeed dampen support for Islamist militant groups like the SSP and the Afghan Taliban. The policy implications of this research are potentially important. Rather than pillorying Islamic education and the institutions where such education takes place, perhaps a more productive approach is to focus upon the quality of Islamic education that students receive. Our work suggests that modest knowledge of Islam among Pakistanis can have an important mitigating effect for support for militancy.

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Filed Under: academia, Featured, Useful idiots, willful ignorance Tagged With: Brookings Institution, Christine Fair


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Comments

  1. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 12:58 pm

    Can being smarter about Islam help Muslims reject terrorist appeals? Maybe.

    And, then again, maybe not. The Brookings Institution is of course famously liberal. In other words, it “researchers” and writers firmly believe in the impossible. But it’s not impossible to read and understand the plain statements made in the Holy Ko-Ran and the Hah-Deaths, in fact its nearly impossible to not understand what these and other Islamic scriptures say. Moslems understand the plain statements, but the liberals at Brookings don’t, which is a misunderstanding that is predominate in the West and nearly impossible to come up with. These intellectuals failed to define exactly what being smart about Islam means, but are clear that recognition of Allah’s commands is not part of that.

    • Lia says

      Apr 22, 2016 at 3:46 pm

      But we should feel pity for people as deluded as this Mrs Fair. Think how debilitating it must be to say what your arab paymasters tell you to say and to find yourself believing it …

  2. Hindu American says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 12:59 pm

    C. Fair is an oddity (and, putting it mildly, lets just leave it at that). If you read her earlier reports, rants and periodic ravings, it becomes clear that she was once in “bed” with the pakistanis only to turn against them (maybe the checks dried up?). She speaks urdu along with the curse words, the official pakistani language. Now she is universally despised by the pakistani fan boy establishment. It may be timing – must be the saudi/qatari love-hate relationship with the pakls.

    Watch out for her.

    • Christianblood says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 1:29 pm

      This is another pro-islamic propaganda created by the clueless postmodernist elites that are running the West to de-sentisice their own people against the real dangers of the islamic death cult.

    • Kepha says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 8:12 pm

      Hindu American: I don’t know how old you are, but take it from a Christian American grandpa: Live long enough, and you’ll see the most passionate political advocates change colors–which may be what has happened between Dr. Fair and the Pakistanis. Back in the Sillier ‘Seventies and ‘Eighties, exposure to Mao’s legacy in China often proved fatal to the ideologies of erstwhile American campus Maoists. Aho knows? Maybe, one of these days, a few years and a bit of maturing will lead that dippy Norwegian Hauken to tell us all, “Ya know what? I hope that Somali who raped me gets butchered by his buddies back home!”

      @Christianblood: Yes, clueless pretty well defines the postmodernists.

    • Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 8:52 pm

      “Watch out for her.”

      Thanks for this tip about Dr. Christine Fair. Her webpage at http://www.christinefair.net/ is charmingly written. It is endearing of her to note the death of her najis companion with “PBUH”, and her curriculum vitae shows the career heights than can be reached by a graduate in biological chemistry. “She can cause trouble in multiple [South Asian] languages.” Ha! Interestingly, the background of her webpage is a painting of the mountain-resort residential neighborhood most recently lived in by O. B. Laden.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 9:50 pm

      Yeah–C. Christine Fair is an idiot. She also wrote the witless “Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations”–as if it doesn’t matter if someone is trying to murder you as long as there is tasty food for the victors.

  3. Jay Boo says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    Related to that

    Even a basic knowledge of TRUE Islam can dampen support from willingly ignorant feminist groups, therefore, NPR and Huff Post spoon feeds them only what they wish to hear.

    • Kepha says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 8:14 pm

      I’m skeptical, Jay Boo. I’m pretty sure lots of feminists voted fto allow Sasquatch-in-a-dress to sit on the crapper next to them.

      • Jay Boo says

        Apr 22, 2016 at 3:04 am

        Sasquatch-in-a-dress
        LOL

        It might just be the camera angle but she appears to have hands that could snap a tree limb.

  4. Angemon says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 1:04 pm

    Editors’ Note: There is a popular misconception that the serious study of Islam is a step on the road toward radicalization and terrorism.

    I didn’t ran a study to try and figure out why that is, but it might have something to do with all those “moderate” muslims who started taking their religion seriously and ended up committing, or planning to commit, acts of terror.

  5. Matt says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 1:10 pm

    “However, the impact of the knowledge variable is all the more surprising when one considers that it includes only rudimentary questions about Islam.”

    The above sounds like the verbose nonsense I would sometimes write in a college paper just to reach the assigned word count.

    And it’s very telling when there are two sides in a debate and one consistently (and predictably) resorts to ad hominem. It generally indicates that the side that engaged in character assassination and well poisoning is dishonest, intellectually bankrupt, or both.

    Apart from that, Mr. Spencer is one of the most intelligent, knowledgeable, sensible and articulate speakers on the subject of Islam there is, and it only confirms that he’s on the right track when his detractors constantly criticize him personally, as opposed to debating the substance of the issues at hand.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 9:53 pm

      Hear, hear!

    • Lia says

      Apr 22, 2016 at 3:50 pm

      Totally off topic: my late, much beloved husband, told our children, when they were at high school and university, that the secret to success often lay in ‘gargling’, as long as it was verbose and seemed to make sense. Your ‘verbose nonsense’ took me back many years.

  6. Rev g says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    And if one becomes suitably devout, one may cease to be a threat by blowing yourself and 9 friends up, building bombs in your mosque.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 9:58 pm

      Yes–that was quite a “work accident”!

      • Rev g says

        Apr 22, 2016 at 2:07 am

        All that work, up in smoke. Unholy smoke, that is.

  7. Jerry says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    This all just strikes me as intellectual slight of hand by these Brookings connivers. It’s an over-simplified and biased use of the relevant factors to squeeze out the desired conclusions. I know bullsh*t when I see it. It doesn’t have the ring of truth, there’s too much else that needs to be considered for this to be a gainful study.

    No, I don’t need some fancy study to make the connection between islam’s “kill those who disbelieve” and those that kill for that same religion. Islamic doctrine is way too recognizable in these crimes for it to be a coincidence. In the vast majority of cases their religious motives are clearly stated. In other cases it’s so in accordance with their creed that the connection is axiomatic. And in those rare cases where doubts arise we’re typically left with no other explanation than it was done out of religious conviction.

    We know where all this hate and murder is coming from, their fake religion. If we deny this truth now we’re like the audience that believes a magician’s trick is a miracle of god even after we’ve been shown the trick. We’re lying to our self and the result is murder, rape, and torture. Willful ignorance with tragic consequences.

  8. zulu says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 1:43 pm

    The Deobandis http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b076cg3d

    This is a thought-provoking podcast about the Deobandi Muslim community in Britain and its links to various jihadist groups.
    The segment where the BBC interviewer asks the director of a London mosque why he has pamphlets stacked within the facility, suggesting that members of the Ahmadi community be killed for apostasy is interesting. He tries to claim that members of that sect actually put the pamphlets there to make the Deobandi look bad.
    The person making that statement, it should be pointed out, is claimed to be an “interfaith ambassador”.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 10:17 pm

      This was, of course, crap–the Mosque had been in trouble for literature calling for violence against Ahmadi several times previously.

  9. Wellington says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    Virtually nothing coming out of Brookings should be accepted at face value, especially anything about Islam. And how ironic that this woman’s last name is Fair. I would also note that I couldn’t help thinking when looking at the photo above she looks like Peter Sellers in a wig.

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 1:54 pm

      Such a cruel thing to say, Wellington. But you’re right, she does look like a female Peter, and I mean no filthy pun by “female Peter” here. An illegitimate daughter, maybe?

      • Wellington says

        Apr 21, 2016 at 2:16 pm

        I knew it was a cruel thing to say, APF, but here’s the worst of it: I enjoyed saying it. I still do.

        Hope you and yours are doing well and that you will have a Muslim-free day.

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 21, 2016 at 10:21 pm

          Muslims have rather less–shall we say–subtle forms of cruelty that they enjoy.

          Wellington, I think I can live with this level of “cruelty” on your part…:)

          Hope you and APF are both well.

    • Mark Swan says

      Apr 22, 2016 at 1:25 pm

      Good One Wellington…Made Me Laugh

  10. SpiritOf1683 says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    Cluelessness is as cluelessness does. Next they’ll be telling us Mohammed knew nothing abourt Islam.

    • c matt says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 5:43 pm

      That reminds me of the scene from “Back to School” where Rodney Dangerfield hires Kurt Vonnegut to write his paper on Kurt Vonnegut, and after reading the paper, Rodney’s clueless teacher tells him “You don’t know anything about Kurt Vonnegut.” That scene pretty much sums up higher education and these “think tanks.”

  11. Fessitude says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 2:01 pm

    Early signs of schizoaffective disorder and dementia:

    On her website, Christine Fair features a photo of herself and her former dog, whom she named “Ms. Oppenheimer”. The caption reads:

    “With her canine associate, Ms. Oppenheimer (PBUH, Oct. 7. 1999-Aug. 11, 2014)”

    http://www.christinefair.net/

    I hope she did proper wudu after handling Ms. Oppenheimer…

  12. linnte says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 2:02 pm

    This whole article is propaganda to PREVENT people from reading the Qur’an. Period. If you follow the link in the Editors note Lawfare, there is a place for commenting. I commented and called the authors OUT on this. It’s WAR folks! Comment and let them know we aren’t fooled by their taqyyia!

  13. Ciudadano says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 2:07 pm

    In other news:

    Advise from Abdulfatah Sasa to Costa Rican authorities on how to treat muslim immigrants stuck in Costa Rica’s border:

    “The husband protects his wife and he gets angry by the simple fact that a policeman or government male agent talks to her. So it is better that our own feminine personnel be in charge of dealing with the women”

    http://www.nacion.com/nacional/politica/Musulmanes-ayudan-atender-crisis-africanos_0_1556044413.html

    So the advise given to our government is to ignore our own principle of women freedom, gender equality and legal system in order to accommodate the immigrants cultural sensibilities. Amazing.

    • amishmime says

      Apr 22, 2016 at 9:41 pm

      Can you even imagine if I went to Saudi Arabia–or any other Islamic country–and tried making demands followed with threats?
      Simply amazing.

  14. Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 2:28 pm

    In assessing basic knowledge of Islam, “To calculate the final index score for respondents, we summed the respondents’ total score and divided it by five to produce an individual knowledge index that ranges from 0 to 1, with higher index value indicating greater knowledge of Islam.”

    Okay, this sounds like a five-question quiz. Not very detailed, but possibly enlightening. To find what these five questions were, I followed the links to the abstract at
    http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2758207
    which refers to a survey of 16,279 Pakistanis five years ago (and misspells “respondents” with an apostrophe). But the five questions are not listed. Can someone with good online search skills please find them?

    I am sure that most of us jihad fans would enjoy taking this quick quiz ourselves. Personally, I don’t know the answer to “Does the Quran specify how one should pray?” Will you get full marks for the answer “Devoutly”? Or do you have to list what the Quran says about the wording of prayers, the posture for praying, the qibla orientation, and the care and feeding of the zebibah?

  15. warren raymond says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 3:11 pm

    Brookings is another Soros outfit:

    http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1237

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 5:58 pm

      Is there any reason Soros shouldn’t be thrown out of the country? This is the guy who as a Jewish teen gave information to Nazis about Jews holding art collections in his hometown of Budapest in exchange for his personal well being. That’s selflessness and loyalty in action. Now he’s funding the nouveau race hate group Black LIves Matter. It’s time for George to return to his homeland. Same goes for Prez Barack Hussein once he leaves office. Back to Kenya you go, Barack. Return to your homeland and take comfort the harm you’ve done to America, just like George should.

  16. billybob says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 5:27 pm

    “She has characterized me as a “lunatic” and an “Islamophobe” … and likened me to Charles Manson.”

    That is quite bizarre comparing Robert to Charles Manson, let alone a “lunatic”. There is simply no basis for such an assessment. Robert is rather calm, and shares his knowledge derived from academic research on Islam. He doesn’t rant and he is not charismatic like one would expect of a Charles Manson type. Furthermore, Charles Manson was an evil murderer, whereas one gets the impression Robert wouldn’t hurt a fly. The “lunatic” label wouldn’t stick either, because simply quoting texts rather than personal theories doesn’t allow much room for lunacy.

    The only thing I can imagine is that she was confused. I am guessing that she has read one of Robert’s discourses where he was quoting heavily from the Quran, and the quotes themselves sounded like lunacy to her. Because she failed to notice the reference or quotation marks, she mistook that for Robert’s words. I could believe that, because the Quran and Hadiths sound like lunacy to me too. Perhaps there were also some quotes from Muhammad. He would have sounded like Charles Manson.

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 5:51 pm

      The only thing I can imagine is that she was confused.

      No, she’s an “intellectual” who has sold out to the prevailing fiction, the widely peddled fake history that dominates nearly all research and public discourse nowadays. As a person who has traded scholarly logic in exchange for a steady income and job security, naturally she’s made herself into a very nasty person with a need to strike out at her betters. That’s where Spencer comes in.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 10:43 pm

      No, not confused. Just intent on smearing, and unconcerned with how false it is.

      • linnte says

        Apr 21, 2016 at 11:16 pm

        That was exactly my impression!

  17. c matt says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 5:51 pm

    So she comes up with five questions on “Islam,” picks for herself what the “correct” interpretation to those questions are, and the assigns a score based on those who agree with her pick as “more knowledgeable about Islam.”

    Nope, no flaw in that approach.

  18. More Ham Ed says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    Thanks Robert for pointing out the study’s glaring contradiction(s).

    The leftist mantra goes something like this:

    1. Redefine everything, redefine words.
    2. Use mere words to solve all the world’s problems.
    3. The world’s problems exist because everyone needs more education.
    4. The world’s problems exist because income/wealth redistribution is needed.
    5. All muslims are the new victims and Islam is a biological race of some kind.
    6. There are no absolutes.

    And so-on.

  19. Fessitude says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 6:46 pm

    All seriousness aside (as Steve Allen (PBUH) used to say), the phenomenon of a Christine Fair (tragically, an all-too prevalent phenomenon in our postmodern West) prompts the question of whether she is evil or is suffering from PC MC (or worse, Leftism) whereby her relatively intelligent and good principles have become re-routed from protecting the victims of Islam to defending the rights of the Islamic predators, due to a fundamental cultural deformation of her intellectual and emotional wiring, so to speak.

    The fact that I pose this question at all (and don’t summarily damn her as evil) means two things:

    1) I believe the Counter-Jihad should resist the temptation to frame the Problem of the Problem (the problem of the West persisting in its myopia to the problem of Islam) in terms of a No True Scotsman fallacy whereby any time we see a Western non-Muslim individual who is, in one way or another, defending Islam and/or defending Muslims, we immediately and axiomatically assume they must be evil, as though there were no other reasons explaining their behavior. (This point already assumes that our interlocutor is capable of seeing the logic here: namely, that a person who knowingly defends Islam and/or Muslims while knowing how evil, dangerous and seditious Islam, must perforce be evil.) For the Counter-Jihad to resist this temptation, it needs to begin thinking about an explanation for why innumerable Westerners whom we presume (giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming innocence until guilt is proven) to be reasonably decent and relatively intelligent — and therefore not evil — end up defending Islam and/or Muslims. Part and parcel of this is our recognition that the Problem of the Problem is not a Manichean division of Us vs. Them, but contains a third element, a vast demographic of sincerely confused Westerners who really think they are doing the right thing by defending Muslims against what they perceive to be “bigotry” (if not also “racism”).

    The main race against time in this war of ideas phase (the most important phase currently) is to see whether the Counter-Jihad can persuade a critical mass of fellow Westerners to wake up before a global conflagration of Mohammedanism wakes them up sooner — for, if it is the latter scenario, it may well be too late.

    • Angemon says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 6:53 pm

      Fessitude posted:

      “1) I believe the Counter-Jihad should resist the temptation to frame the Problem of the Problem (the problem of the West persisting in its myopia to the problem of Islam) in terms of a No True Scotsman fallacy whereby any time we see a Western non-Muslim individual who is, in one way or another, defending Islam and/or defending Muslims, we immediately and axiomatically assume they must be evil, as though there were no other reasons explaining their behavior. ”

      What of muslim individuals who are seemingly law-abiding citizens? Should we assume they are jihadis trying to go unnoticed or should we assume that they are part of “a vast demographic of sincerely confused” Westerner muslims “who really think” islam is a religion of peace?

      • linnte says

        Apr 21, 2016 at 9:23 pm

        I think there are some who blythly follow their Imam and do not study their Qur’an very deeply. I think these folks don’t got to Mosque every Friday, nor pray five times a day either. They are caught up in daily life, just like the rest of us, with baseball for the kids, and school plays and having fun in Disneyland and work and home. These Muslims are the ones who don’t take the time to read and study Qur’an and get all their information and traditions from their parents. These Muslims and their parents were born in Western Society and have no interest what so ever in Middle East politics and Ideology. Many are converts from Christian families or non religious families. This is why they are so agast about anti-jihadist like us when we say “there are no good Muslims”. It would confuse them!

        The key is for them and every non Muslim to read the Qur’an.

        But I do not think they are a MAJORITY of Muslims in any community. I truly believe that if these ” on the fence” Muslims read their holy book, they would have two choices leave or stay with Islam. Compassion is what divides Islamic culture from cultures who (whether we are Christian or not) have been formed and constituted on Christian beliefs.

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 21, 2016 at 11:56 pm

          There is an other factor when it comes to Muslims not-currently-waging-Jihad, as well, linnte.

          Are you familiar with the concepts of Fard Ayn and Fard Kalifa? During some times, the obligation for Muslims to wage violent Jihad is covered as long as *some* members of the Ummah are Jihadis. The period of Fard Ayn is when it is considered incumbent on every able-bodied Muslim to carry our Jihad.

          Even many of the most fervent Muslims still consider this a period of Fard Kalifa–so many Mohammedans zealously support Jihad, but don’t feel obligated to wage if themselves right now.

          That’s why you can have such high percentages of Muslims supporting Jihad–more than are actively performing acts of terrorism themselves.

          And there are many ways to support Jihad besides strapping on a suicide belt–the Jihad of the tongue or pen (you find that with Muslims trolls here), stealth Jihad, street Jihad, and–most especially–funding violent Jihad in the form of Zakat.

        • linnte says

          Apr 22, 2016 at 12:55 am

          I knew that some were content to let others do their Jihad, but I didn’t know it was part of their Ideology! Wow! That sheds much light on the issue of Jihad! I have to write those words down and look them up. There is one and only one good thing about Islam-I learn something new every day about it. Hahahahahahaha! Thanks General! (You are the General of Dumbledores army) ?

        • Fessitude says

          Apr 22, 2016 at 8:27 pm

          “I knew that some were content to let others do their Jihad”

          This meme tends to obscure the fact that there are many different types and flavors of Jihad. If one only focuses on the violent attack and forgets about all the other flavors, one will more easily fall into the trap of thinking large numbers of Muslims are “not doing Jihad”.

          In this important respect, the distinction between Fard Ayn and Fard Kalifa cited by gravenimage above is not really pertinent since, as gravenimage went on to say, it refers to the division between Muslims who pursued violent Jihad and those who didn’t; not really addressing that the ones who didn’t go “out to battle” can and do still wage Jihad when they are sojourning in the Dar al-Harb (and when the harbis are too strong to conquer merely through violent Jihad).

          The Jihad of the Kitchen Sink
          http://hesperado.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-jihad-of-kitchen-sink.html

        • linnte says

          Apr 22, 2016 at 8:41 pm

          I wish someone would Jihad the dishes in my kitchen sink and Jihad the wood in my wood pile too. And while they’re at it, maybe they could Jihad with my ferocious vacuume cleaner and Windex on my windows! Hahahaha!

          Thanks for the link Fess!

    • Demsci says

      Apr 23, 2016 at 3:51 am

      Truly impressive analysis, Fessitude (Hesperado of old) and I agree. You are a great discerning watchdog, guard, for me, very informative, instructive and to be ignored at our peril.

      The vexed question of how to respond to the Islamic threat often engages me and comes out in discussions with, you know, those around a person; family, friends, colleagues etc.

      And I change, from the one extreme to the other and much in between. Due to seeing the merit in so many arguments.

      That said, I am soooo influenced by positive psychology, which means: Primarily focus on what you are FOR, and only in that context on what you are against. People who look for what we should be for, however, still need security-experts like you.

      I think we might well agree on the very important positive goal of maintaining, promoting the democratic values, tenets, laws, system AND NATIONS, the core of which are in the Anglo countries, Europe, augmented with Israel, Japan, South Korea (followers of the West).

      I enjoy your analysis and distinctions, but they describe defense for the above. Which we also should take time to get reacguainted to and celebrate and savour and propagandize for them. And expand too, in regard to useful connections. One such is the realisation by happiness-experts that really, Democratic circumstances are VITAL for happiness. Esp. true freedom of speech and highest possible autonomy. Needless to say that Islam is anti-thetical to these happiness-enhancers-guarantors. And there now is this action-programme “ActionForHappiness”.

      Now, In a democratic system, we cannot try to change the situation with a minority and hence we have the strong necessity to figure out how to get “swingvoters, fence-sitters” on our side.

      And there is can come in handy to “attack Islam” and “try to save the Muslims”, as Mortimer was accused of. As a compromise to reach the longed for majority, “critical mass” to finally get legislation, action to protect what we are FOR.

  20. rara says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 6:51 pm

    For those who missed, previously about Georgetown Uni on JW:

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/08/georgetown-university-prof-son-of-jihad-terror-leader-likens-israel-to-islamic-state

    “Georgetown University is among the worst. Not only does it employ this vicious Jew-hater, but it is also the home of the Saudi-funded Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, an energetic mill of Muslim victimhood propaganda, denial of the jihad threat, and defamation of foes of jihad terror “

  21. OP says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 8:22 pm

    I was confused about whom they studied. Native Muslims or non-Muslims? Because if they are talking about non-Muslims I have indeed found that some knowledge ends support of Islam. I remember right after 9/11 a family member brought home a free Koran from a local farmer’s market. I was the only person to read it and I was excited because religion interests me in an intellectual way. I have little belief but wish I had more and I’ve studied just about every religion except Islam. I was neutral on the subject thinking there must be something beautiful and attractive that 1 billion adherents admire. I have since realized they don’t admire it but are forced to accept it and then like 1984 begin to like it. Anyway, I read the Koran and was shocked. Floored. I remember going around asking people if they had any idea what was in it. In fact it wasn’t until recently that anyone seems to have actually read it. It is not a religious book but a law book for the most part and it says the most terrible things about women, Jews, Christians, fallen Muslims. What sickens me is the fact that if you bring that up you’re told you’re misinterpreting it. Please read this book and encourage others to do so. You can get free copies from many sources.

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 11:37 pm

      and then you find out that it isn’t just the Quran but the Sira or Life of Muhammad, by Ibn Ishaq, and the Sahih Hadiths; and you find out that those are just as bad as the Quran and, indeed, *worse*, and that normative Islam, as practised from the 7th century unto this day, is based on *all three* (Quran, Sira, Hadiths).

      • linnte says

        Apr 22, 2016 at 12:49 am

        Oh I so agree! I really thought the Hadith would be less horrible than the Quran. It is worse.

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 22, 2016 at 12:55 am

          Yes–and the model of the vicious “Prophet” is horrifying, as well.

      • Demsci says

        Apr 23, 2016 at 2:49 am

        Dumbledoresarmy, but it does not end there, although there might be a case for arguing that everything after Quran-Sira-Sahih-hadith is “history” or “addendum” or “interpretation”. Which could be interesting to explore.

        I saw Jay Smith on youtube, and the corollary he showed was: “Tafsir”, the “theologians of Islam”, manifested in Shafi, Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, the 4 schools of Islamic jurisprudence of Islam. There also is Al Azhar.

        Not entirely authoritative and certainly not capable of removing membership of Islam from straying, heretic Muslims, but still highly, stifling influential.

        And, at this moment, I think these are the worst of all! Because Quran-Sira-Sahih-hadiths? Oh, they are a mess and in big need of “Tafsir, theologians” but at the same time much more malleable without them.

        But, I admit, a re-examination of Quran-Sira-SahihHadiths without Tafsire probably will go nowhere, sigh ….

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 22, 2016 at 12:00 am

      I had the same reaction to reading the Qur’an that you did, OP–I was shocked at just *how* violent it was.

      But no–this ridiculous study is claiming that Muslims are less apt to support violent Jihad if they are knowledgeable about Islam–which, of course, calls for Muslims to wage violent Jihad.

      It just wants to give the impression that Jihad has nothing to do with Islam.

  22. Srinivasan says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 8:22 pm

    Christine Fair always intrigued me with her blind spot for islam. One word against Islam in her twitter account and bang – she will block you. Never, not even for a second, she appeared honest in her assessment of islam. Thanks Robert for exposing Brookings as a front for Qatar Govt

  23. mortimer says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 9:33 pm

    Quote: “5.The study’s principal author is Christine Fair, a professor at Saudi-funded Georgetown University”

    Ah-ha. I wonder how many academics, journalists, politicians are bribed by the Saudis. I wonder how much it takes to bribe one of these people to be a shill for the Death Cult? $500,000? $1 million? $1.5 million?

    Could forensic accountants find where the money is hidden?

  24. mortimer says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 9:38 pm

    Robert Spencer wrote: ” She just becomes utterly unhinged at the prospect of any challenge to her intellectual house of cards”

    Well said.

    So Prof. Fair, how about it? Why don’t you face Robert Spencer in a formal debate and show him how right you are. We long to see the pyrotechnic display of your unequalled brilliance in defending misogyny, vigilantism, genocide and slavery.

    Go ahead. Make Spencer’s day!

    • linnte says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 10:07 pm

      Yeah, what Mortimer said because it would make MY day too!

  25. gravenimage says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 9:44 pm

    Brookings touts study claiming that “even a basic knowledge of Islam” can “dampen support for Islamist militant groups”
    ………………………

    We’ve heard this crap before. It is based on the ridiculous idea that Jihad is–somehow–not really Islamic.

    The absurd Brookings Institution has featured such ludicrous stories recently as “Everyone says the Libya intervention was a failure. They’re wrong”–certainly true if you are ISIS–and “Experts weigh in (part 7): Is ISIS good at governing?”.

  26. mortimer says

    Apr 21, 2016 at 11:20 pm

    There is much evidence that the ‘radicalized’ have attended Islamic study groups.

    There is much evidence that the most conservative jihadists have PhDs in Islamic knowledge…people like the Caliph al-Baghdadi, BA, MA and PhD in Islamic Studies.

    • mortimer says

      Apr 21, 2016 at 11:28 pm

      There is much evidence that MANY the most conservative jihadists have PhDs in Islamic knowledge

  27. Demsci says

    Apr 22, 2016 at 4:31 am

    But how can this ever help? The opposite idea that the members of Islamic terrorist organisations have too little knowledge of Islam is completely untenable, surely. Surely there is no correlation whatsoever! These people are prepared to die for their religion!

    So what would be comforting about this study? At best wishful thinking? That, yes, Islamic “radical” terrorists are knowledgeable about Islam, but ….. when Islam is followed until Mastery or something THEN the danger that the “Islam-student” joins the Islamic terrorists DIMINISHES?!

    No, it is as well that there are so many “tepid” Muslims, not really practicing Islam. Those who practice Islam seriously have a very high chance to at least be anti-Kuffar anti-democratic, anti-Western and sympathetic to the enemies of democracy and West and at worst to take up arms against them.

    For some time now I see the Democratic values and system as the opposite of Islam, or at least it”s dominant manifestation. So the Brookings institute could also probe the question if, among Muslims,

    there is “correlation” between really deep knowledge of Democratic values and system and their attitude in relation to them;

    Are Muslims on the whole against it and being in favor of it’s enemies, or for it, in preference to it’s enemies, so will they support democracy trumping thdeir support for theocratic totalitarian co-religionists???

    To counterjihadists the answer is clear, but such a survey would call the bluff of such political correct Islam-apologists as the above mentioned surveyors

  28. Demsci says

    Apr 22, 2016 at 4:44 am

    Addendum; After all, when, in the eighties the Afghan Mujahideen fought the Soviets, then the main enemies of the democratic values, system and nations, most of the Westerners didn’t care much about Islam one way or the other.

    And I know that I was in favor of the Mujahidien and against the Soviets back then. I had, if you will, the ABC-attitude (Anything But Communism).

    And now, we should not be AGAINST Islam only with a sort of ABI; Anything But Islam.

    Perhaps it behooves us to focus on what it is we are FOR, that is viewed with hostility and threathened by so many Mulslims, among whom are many very violent ones and some really powerful ones, like the ayatollahs.

  29. Dean says

    Apr 22, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    It is amusing how leftwing intellectuals interpret text and conclude the opposite of its adherents. One might suspect they have an agenda to achieve. About the time that Obama gave a national speech about how Isis in not Islamic and how he would use previously failed tactics to stop Isis, a survey of Saudis regarding the Sharia compliance or Koran compliance of Isis and the yes votes for both were in the 80s. Seems that those that read the Koran like a bible and frequently only the approved holy text interpret those text so differently than such intellectuals.

  30. Dave123 says

    Apr 22, 2016 at 6:41 pm

    You missed out the best bits where it states itself that ‘the result is not statistically significant’ inside the PDF

  31. amishmime says

    Apr 22, 2016 at 9:46 pm

    Well, I for one think it’s time folks like these put up or shut up. Let her and her co-author Jacob Goldstein go to ISIS held territory and explain it to them in person.
    ISIS just needs to be better informed about Islam.
    Can someone start a GoFund thingy and we can all pay their way there? Maybe they ARE the answer to ending Islamic terrorism.

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