Posted on 11/06/2005 8:38:33 PM PST by Jacob Kell
With the latest world events--fighting in Fallujah, gun battles in southern Thailand, and an attack on the diplomatic quarter of Damascus--attention is turning even more intently to radical Islam. In March, after the Madrid train bombings, Beliefnet talked with Michael Sells, a renowned comparative religions scholar whose specialty is Saudi Salafism, also known as Wahhabism, about the state of play in global Islam and terrorism. We are reprinting it today because his comments are, if anything, more accurate now than they were a few weeks ago.
What does this mean for the landscape of worldwide Islam?
If it’s true that this was an Islamic radical group with ties to Al Qaeda, then it seems to be another act of an organized anti-Western group that has shifted now from the jihad of the Taliban centered around Al Qaeda in Afghanistan to an international war against what is viewed as Western occupation.
(Excerpt) Read more at beliefnet.com ...
Ya, prior to the war in Iraq, Islam was the religion of peace and there were no areas of strife in the world involving Islam.
Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Phillipines, Pakistan, Afghanistan were all visions of peace and love.
Radical Salafism is based on a particular reading of the Medieval writer Ibn Taymiyya, who wrote after the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols. He viewed non-Salafi Muslims, and Christians, and Jews, as allies of the Mongols and as threats to the security and purity of Islam. And he was particularly angered by Mongols who had invaded Islam and said they had converted, but who weren’t, in his view true converts. The latest radical view of Islam sees a [new] threat of occupation by outside forces….It sees the West as occupying Islam, so it views them the way Ibn Taymiyya viewed the Mongols.
This does bring up an interesting perspective. From a western perspective, we have been so liberalized into a 'comparative reigion' theology, that recent Talaban (actual group released I'm recalling from memory of press reports, so I may be off a bit here)prison releasees from Afghanistan were reportedly doled $25 and a copy of the Koran.
By this article, those who would follow a Wahhabbist perspective might find the issuance of the Koran to Muslims by American allies to be the height of arrogant insult to their faith, because it would render the document 'impure'.
IMHO, the only way to remain consistent would be to issue them a Bible in good faith and let God handle the situation.
You forgot Thailand, the Muslims in southern Thailand have been attacking the Buddhists long before the Iraqi war.
(speaking of muslims in the US, he says:
"And they do want ownership of their own Islam. They want a mosque and a teaching that relates to their culture, to their society, their neighbors, that teaches them a way of getting along in peaceful and constructive ways with their non-Muslim neighbors."
I stopped reading right there, on pg 3 of 4. This clown has quite an arrogance and imagination, LOL.
And India.
just since the interview was first printed, more and more incidents in the world have convinced even MORE people that these mooooslems are bad news, and we're gonna be ready for anything.
"... the Iraq war united radical Islam ..."
And .. that's exactly what it was intended to do.
It might have been a gamble .. but Iraq was training and supporting the terrorists .. and taking away the facilities and the money would be a severe blow. It certainly would seem like a rather educated guess on our part on how the terrorists would react. But .. the gamble was that it was better to meet them on the battlefield of Iraq, than in the streets of NYC or WashDC or LA.
I'm not the least bit surprised so many terrorists started showing up. It was their chance to hit the "Great Satan" again - right in their own backyard.
I don't know why people can't see that ..??
A Wahhabbist only accepts certain types of Korans.
Not just any Koran will do.
He also forgot Chechnya and the Sudan. Did he mention the Balkans, Indonesia and Kashmir? Wherever there is islam there is no peace.
Your list omits -
USA, Israel, Nigeria, Kuwait, Bali, Scotland, and other recipients of exported Islamic Love prior to Iraq War.
Lots of lovin' going on in Yugoslavia as well (though I'm not educated enough to know right from wrong in that situation.)
Please excuse possible incomplete list - late. Also tough to keep track of all the Western aggression.
What is intersting, when the list is assembled, is how they target civilians, and women and children. I wonder how George Bush influenced them to act - in almost all cases - as war criminals.
Martyr line forms on the right...one bullet to a customer..
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