[Steel Wolf]

In the short term, obviously Al Qaeda's objectives are politcal. They want us out of Iraq. But long term what they want is the Muslim caliphate, and, I believe, beyond. ... This is not merely a political goal, and it is certainly not rational. It is fundamentally a religious goal.

Mull this over for a bit: al-Qa'ida is a armed political organization masquerading as a religious one.

AQ not only believes in the afterlife, but they have a plan for hhow to fix what's wrong with the world, right here and now. The state of men's souls is of secondary interest to them; it's control the temporal world they're after. While they use and believe in extremist Islamic beliefs, they're

Given the nature of radical Islam as a relentlessly offensive religion that utilizes jihad as a method of expanding Allah's kingdom, the ultimate goal cannot be anything other than the worldwide dominance of Islam.

In that respect, Islam uniquely differs from other religions. (Although it's a textbook example of a cult.) Islam, as an entity, is half religious, and half political. You're not necessarily dealing with both or either at any given time, because in the mind of a Muslim, much of what we separate down lines of 'church' and 'state', they consider interchangeable.

[Zack Nguyen]

You're not necessarily dealing with both or either at any given time, because in the mind of a Muslim, much of what we separate down lines of 'church' and 'state', they consider interchangeable.

This is certainly true. There appears to be no distinction at all between the function of the state and the clerical authorities. Radical Islam is inherently authoritarian.