Posted on 04/04/2014 2:09:44 AM PDT by markomalley
If Masood Farivar had been a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, would the Voice of America have hired him? If he were calling for members of the Aryan Nations to be “reintegrated” into Western society, would the New York Times have given him a platform? Islamic jihadists are no less violent, ruthless, and oppressive than the KKK or the Aryan Nations — indeed, more so. But they have a better PR arm.
If a Muslim from the United States returns from waging jihad in Syria and sets off a jihad mass murder attack in New York or Washington, will Masood Farivar and the New York Times issue an apology?
“The Foreign Fighters and Me,” by Masood Farivar in the New York Times, April 1:
WASHINGTON — We have heard a great deal recently about the “foreign fighters” flocking to take up arms against the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war — and the threat they may pose if they eventually return to their home countries as battle-hardened jihadis.
The numbers certainly demand our attention. Of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 foreign fighters in Syria, as many as 2,000 are said to be European nationals, as well as some 100 Australian citizens and several dozen American passport holders, according to published sources. While some are fighting alongside “moderate” rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army, most have reportedly joined the ranks of the militant Jabhet al-Nusra and the formerly Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
I know the mentality of these nationless combatants. I fought beside them.
As a teenage Afghan refugee living in Pakistan in the 1980s, I joined the anti-Soviet resistance. I took up arms in a cause we called jihad, or holy war — but one focused on liberating our homeland, not exporting an ideology. War came to us through Soviet invasion: We hated it, and we wanted to live through it to see a free Afghanistan at peace.
(rest of NYT extract is snipped for copyright reasons)
Except for one inconvenient fact: the Times Square bomber justified his actions by reference to Islamic teaching: “Jihad, holy fighting in Allah’s course, with full force of numbers and weaponry, is given the utmost importance in Islam….By jihad, Islam is established….By abandoning jihad, may Allah protect us from that, Islam is destroyed, and Muslims go into inferior position, their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligation and duty in Islam on every Muslim.” — Times Square car bomb terrorist Faisal Shahzad
The Columbine shooters didn’t say anything like that.
Before summarily prosecuting the fighters upon their return from Syria, as Britain is considering, or revoking the United States citizenship of fighters with dual citizenship (as some have called for), we should determine their guilt by more than association. For most, a deradicalization program, such as those run by Saudi Arabia, could help reintegrate them into civilian life.
In Afghanistan, hundreds of veterans stayed behind and followed in Osama bin Laden’s footsteps to later infamy. Others, gripped by religious fervor and martial wanderlust, went on to cause mayhem in places like Algeria and Egypt during the 1990s.
But not all did, of course. For some, their adventure concluded, quiet civilian lives beckoned. I befriended a young Arab-American from New York who was happy to be heading home at the end of the war. A Harvard-educated British convert I knew went on to become a distinguished war correspondent. I, too, became a writer and journalist. You might say that in the end, we were more closely allied in peace than we had been in war.
Indeed — no one is a better friend of jihad terrorists than “journalists” such as Christiane Amanpour, Bob Smietana, Niraj Warikoo, Lisa Wangsness, etc. etc. etc.
What could go wrong?
Easier to prevent them from coming back. They aren’t our problem then.
“Islamic jihadists are no less violent, ruthless, and oppressive than the KKK or the Aryan Nations “
Say what? The KKK and AN are deplorable but they haven’t killed hundreds of thousands of people.
This moozlum freak works for the VOA? Do US taxpayers pay his salary? Disgusting.
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