[Principled]

State-supported Muslim clerics in Egypt or Saudi Arabia may dismiss bin Laden's acts as un-Islamic, but no prominent sheikh goes on al-Jazeera television to counter his call for jihad. No leading Islamic thinkers dial up the Mideast's equivalent of CNN and demand airtime to assail bin Laden's hijacking of Islamic symbols to justify mass murder.

THat's cuz they like the attack on the US. Of course they distance themselves from OBL- they want to survive the next few years so that they can kill more Americans and get their virgins.

This is war.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

No leading Islamic thinkers dial up the Mideast's equivalent of CNN and demand airtime to assail bin Laden's hijacking of Islamic symbols to justify mass murder.

This confirms my belief there is no such thing as a "moderate" Muslim. If these people believed what bin Laden is doing is destroying their religion thru hate and murder, they would sign up to rid the world of bin Laden and his henchmen.

They quietly approve of the jihad approach. They are the quiet collaborators.

[classygreeneyedblonde]

1 Peter 5:8..warns, your adversary the devil as a romaing lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour...

Osama ...... means roaring lion.

[conqueror]

The enemy is Islam. I seriously question the loyalty of all of those "Black Muslims".

[hauerf]

It's quite sufficient that those who won't support us are scared shitless of us. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance (where vigilance includes always doing whatever it takes to have the best military in the world by a factor of 10).

[OhioGuy]

Ask ANY Muslim this question and you will see where his heart is: "Did the hijackers who steered the planes into the WTC and Pentagon go to 'Paradise' upon thier death?" If they are honest, I think that most Muslims would answer "yes"... I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think we will ever have peace with any Muslim that believes in the Koran literally, and I believe most do.

[Dan Day]

The old ideologies are dead. Pan-Arab nationalism failed, as did the promise of socialism and communism that drew so many bright Arab intellectuals. So no one should be surprised at the appeal of a false prophet who offers yet another ideology, the promise of political Islam.

Good article.

I think it also hints at light at the end of the tunnel, especially in the above paragraph.

Arabs have tried and failed, tried and failed, tried and failed to find a path out of their continued social/political/economic/cultural failures. I think the support, and/or lack of vocal opposition to bin Laden and his thugs comes from a sense of, "if it works, what the the hell, we'll overlook the means."

But it also means that if we knock the stuffing out of al Qaeda and make them yet another failed movement, the support for that sort of evil will dry up very quickly and no more groups attempting to raise up Arab countries via terrorism will find any further support.

Then, as in the old saying, "men do the honorable thing once they have exhausted all other possibilities", the Arab world may find it has no other option than to bring their countries into the twenty-first century and the world community the right way -- by adopting the virtuous Western values (tolerance, reason, negotiation, peace, free speech, liberty, democracy, equality) that they have been resisting for so long.