Thursday, January 22, 2015

Things to Ponder: "What do jihadists want?"

Interesting paragraph from Dr. Walid Phares in his book The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy;
Salafists, Wahabis, Takfiris, Tblighis and other Sunni Islamists reject the concept of pluralism and radically oppose the rule of the people. Only Allah and his teachings, they postulate, are the basis for governance. The Shia-born Khumeinists condemn Western-style liberalism but co-opt concepts and words from international democratic institutions such as the idea of a republic. They installed an Islamic republic in Iran, but its mandate is believed to be divinely inspired and not subject to the approval of civil society. Islamists from all schools of thought, and violent jihadists in particular, have an ideology of their own, based on ideas diametrically opposed to classical liberal democracies. The jihadists aim at the re-creation of what they perceive as a caliphate, merging dozens of Muslim countries into one world power. They want to impose strict religious laws on the people of the caliphate and claim furthermore that this form of government is ordained by God. Hence they have no tolerance for man-made legislation, and politics is tightly scripted by the militant interpreters of faith. The followers of Jihadism, openly or discreetly, as well as those who share the Islamists' enemies, have moved worldwide to obstruct the rise of secular democracies, especially within the realm of the Muslim world. They plan to resume what they believe is a millennial project: world domination.
Makes negotiating toward some peaceful resolution tough when your opponent believes that his position is "God-approved" and that your position is the work of the devil. Not much in the way of middle ground there.


2 comments:

  1. The excerpt from Dr. Walid Phares's War of Ideas book does not go far enough, in my opinion. While everything it says is true, it fails to mention the milestones of the world-wide caliphate hopefuls recruiting for ISIS, for instance, nor the Muslim lobby C.A.I.R. which is a significant enabler of each stepping stone toward autonomous areas within the U.S. and the eventual overthrow of our U.S. Constitution. Think eventual state secession to become Muslim states is out of the question?

    As history has proven often enough, we are encouraging a patient, fanatical onslaught with what appears to be weak leadership and a patient appeal to higher reasoning. In the meantime what was once a local fanatic foothold has become a widely disbursed, rapidly spreading contagion of violence and oppression.

    At some point, the virus will win unless we demonstrate a physical (kinetic) strength to win convincingly. The "leadership frpm behind", "gradually degrading ISIL" strategies are failing at the rate of 500 new ISIS recruits a month according to one general (1500 new recruits minus 500 ISIS bombing casualties [est]).

    If Russia proceeds with colonizing Ukraine, U.S. would do better to consider having B-52s carpet bomb militant Islamic strongholds and let our Marines clean them up, rather than let ISIS build more strength (and wealth) with which to fight our grandchildren.

    Moreover, it is time to restrict immigration to the U.S. Every Muslim immigrant, by now, should be required to sign an oath of allegiance to our constitution that supercedes devotion to Sharia law, or face expulsion.

    You and I had to sign oaths of allegiance to serve, why should any rU.S. esident be exempt from the congruent attestations?

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  2. In WWII, our strategy for defeating Japan dwelt little, if at all, on what the Japanese wanted. We didn't spend a lot of time or resources studying the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, or the influence of the Bushido code on the government of Japan. The only thing that mattered was besting Japan on any and all fronts, killing their soldiers and sailors, burning down their cities, until they capitulated to OUR will, OUR desires.

    To do differently with ISIS, al Qaeda, or any other similar group only elevates their status with those on the sidelines, waiting for their turn to challenge the West.

    Instead of passively appealing to those mythical chaps of 'better judgement' within their ranks, it should be made dramatically clear to all that no accommodation, no modus vivendi, will be attempted, and that continued resistance will only end with their utter destruction.

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