Radical Islam is at war with everyone
FRIDA GHITIS, Miami Herald:
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"Suicide bombings in Southern Iraq, more blasts in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital and a massive terrorist plot involving chemical weapons discovered in Jordan, which authorities said would have killed some 20,000 people -- all point to the greatest fallacy about the current campaign by militant Islamists. The common view holds that this is a war of East vs. West, of militant fundamentalist Islam vs. the United States and its allies. The reality is quite different. Radical Islam is at war against the majority of the world's Muslims, who have no desire to live under the militants' reading of Islamic law.
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"It is Muslims, however, that terrorists are killing in the largest numbers by far. More important, it is Muslims whose governments and societies the militants ultimately want to dominate. Today's Muslim world is the final prize for the winner of the conflict.
"Followers of the al Qaeda ideology have already shown what kind of government and what kind of society they pursue. Afghanistan had the dubious distinction of embodying that fundamentalist fantasy under Taliban rule. From Afghanistan we know that the biggest losers from a fundamentalists' victory will be Muslim women. But anyone who does not want to live in a world where religious authorities dictate every aspect of daily life, where thought and expression are strictly controlled and where infractions against ancient religious codes are punished by beheadings or stonings, also stands to lose if Islamists succeed.
"The No. 1 enemy of Islamic radicals is modernity. Anything that moves society forward, away from their understanding of what life was like in seventh century Arabia, where Islam was born, is a threat."
FRIDA GHITIS, Miami Herald:
...
"Suicide bombings in Southern Iraq, more blasts in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital and a massive terrorist plot involving chemical weapons discovered in Jordan, which authorities said would have killed some 20,000 people -- all point to the greatest fallacy about the current campaign by militant Islamists. The common view holds that this is a war of East vs. West, of militant fundamentalist Islam vs. the United States and its allies. The reality is quite different. Radical Islam is at war against the majority of the world's Muslims, who have no desire to live under the militants' reading of Islamic law.
...
"It is Muslims, however, that terrorists are killing in the largest numbers by far. More important, it is Muslims whose governments and societies the militants ultimately want to dominate. Today's Muslim world is the final prize for the winner of the conflict.
"Followers of the al Qaeda ideology have already shown what kind of government and what kind of society they pursue. Afghanistan had the dubious distinction of embodying that fundamentalist fantasy under Taliban rule. From Afghanistan we know that the biggest losers from a fundamentalists' victory will be Muslim women. But anyone who does not want to live in a world where religious authorities dictate every aspect of daily life, where thought and expression are strictly controlled and where infractions against ancient religious codes are punished by beheadings or stonings, also stands to lose if Islamists succeed.
"The No. 1 enemy of Islamic radicals is modernity. Anything that moves society forward, away from their understanding of what life was like in seventh century Arabia, where Islam was born, is a threat."
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