[redleg99]

First, I’ll join with others here in mourning the loss of our soldiers.

However, I would like to address some of the conclusions drawn form this incident.

There is no reliable way to distinguish a "moderate" from an "extremist," given the deep roots within Islamic texts and teachings of the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism, and given the fact that no Islamic sect or school of jurisprudence has declared Osama bin Laden's understanding of Islam to be un-Islamic.

I agree with the first part of your statement. I think, though, that you can say the same things about criminals in general: it’s difficult to know who is going to be a criminal until they have committed a crime.

I don’t dispute either that there are some egregious things written in the Qur'an, and that Jihadis will cite these as justification for their actions.

With respect, I disagree with the idea that no Muslim has repudiated either the violence of the Jihadis or the jurisprudence upon which it is based. I offered some evidence for this in another post * as well some reasons why that evidence might be difficult to find in the western media. Having thought about it some more, I’ll add another reason: I’m willing to bet that Islamic scholars who repeatedly and publicly denounce Jihadis will often end up dying prematurely.

But every now and then, you can find something. For example, following the February, 2006 bombing of the Al ‘Askariyya Mosque in Samarra, this appeared in Al Jazeera:

Major Sunni groups joined in condemning the attack. The Association of Muslim Scholars called the bombing a criminal act, while the Sunni Endowment, a government organisation that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, sent a delegation to Samarra to investigate.**

There is also this one, from a few days before the bombing:

Hundreds of Iraqi citizens poured into the streets of Samarra on Tuesday in a massive demonstration against Al Qaeda. Most estimated the crowd to numbering between 700 and 1,000.

The protest, organized by two major Sunni groups, the Iraqi Islamic Party and Muslim Scholars Association, blamed Al Qaeda for the deaths of some 40 Iraqi police recruits last week, according to Reuters, and condemned other attacks by the group. ***

So what does all this prove? I think it says that there are divisions among Muslims, and that any given Muslim is not necessarily a Jihadi. Based on this, I think this creates an opportunity for us in our current war that we can exploit. Admittedly, this is not risk-free, and as you noted, there are costs for doing this. However, I would submit to you that pursuing a policy which treats all Muslims as our enemies would have a much higher cost in both American lives and treasure.

Just my two cents, and probably not worth even that much.


* http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...28&postcount=3

** “Dozens killed in Iraq sectarian violence,” Al-Jazeera, February 24, 2006. The article can be found online here:
english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=18844 (link left cold – add http://)

*** “Nearly 1,000 Iraqis demonstrate against Al Qaeda” Al-Bawaba, January 25, 2006. The article can be found online here:
albawaba.com/en/countries/Iraq/193907 (link left cold – add http://www)