The links above did not work and found this one did: http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video...ef=videosearch
davidbfpo
The links above did not work and found this one did: http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video...ef=videosearch
davidbfpo
Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism
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Fear, Inertia, and Islam
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Islamism, Islamofascism, and Islam?
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Jihadist Narratives: Democratized Islam and Islamic Nation Building
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Whence Islam?
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A startling clear NYT opinion by a Turkish author and worth a read. The second passage says:He ends with:Religion is not actually at the heart of these conflicts — invariably, politics is to blame. But the misuse of Islam and its history makes these political conflicts much worse as parties, governments and militias claim that they are fighting not over power or territory but on behalf of God. And when enemies are viewed as heretics rather than just opponents, peace becomes much harder to achieve.Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/op...slam.html?_r=0But when Islam merges with power, or becomes a rallying cry in power struggles, its values begin to fade.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 06-12-2017 at 09:49 AM. Reason: 14k views before merging
davidbfpo
The Left, Islamism, and a Moment of Truth?
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A commentary by Sir John Jenkins, an ex-UK diplomat and Middle East SME, that has a wider application than the UK:https://policyexchange.org.uk/a-state-of-extremes/
Two "tasters":The penultimate sentence:Islamists are by definition revolutionary. They reject most existing political systems as un-Islamic – something they claim exclusively to define. They seek to replace the secular and neo-Westphalian with a new Islamised order nationally and internationally. This does not mean that they all seek revolution now. Some do. Others value patience and seek to manufacture consent. They are prepared to use force where this is not effective or fast enough or where they are not allowed to operate with sufficient freedom.Above all we need to recognise the threat for what it is, one of the most significant ideological challenges to our conception of ourselves and our societies since the Second World War.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 08-05-2017 at 07:10 PM. Reason: 2,787v before merging
davidbfpo
Sir John Jenkins, a retired Uk diplomat, has a wide ranging overview of the Middle East; sub-titled:Link:https://www.newstatesman.com/world/m...me-middle-eastSince the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Iran has become ever more powerful in the region. But now a new Saudi-led alliance is fighting back. Are we heading for a catastrophe?
Last edited by davidbfpo; 11-26-2017 at 07:14 PM. Reason: 42,531v
davidbfpo
A double whammy, a second piece (20 pgs.) by Sir John Jenkins; this time a lecture @ Policy Exchange on the Middle East, political Islamism - including the Muslim Brotherhood - and the conflict between nations. Some very telling phrases, especially on Iran - which defy copying.
Link:https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-con...rt-version.pdf
davidbfpo
In response...
Thus far, Iraq has merely returned the situation to the pre-2014 status quo, which was not unfavorable to the Kurds. The Kurdistan Regional Government has been “pro-Western and open for business” because it has been a U.S. client or protectorate for over a generation: specifically since 1991. The same is hardly true of the Turkish and Syrian Kurds, who are mainly under the control of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and its Syrian branch, the Democratic Union Party.Originally Posted by John Jenkins
Unfortunately, Jenkins makes the grave error of conflating Iraqi and Syrian Kurds, the KDP and the PKK, and the Peshmerga and the YPG. Barzani attempted a fait accompli despite Western warnings, and despite the fact that the West was not about to allow Iraqi Kurdistan to be overrun by Iraqi Shia militias and subjugated into a unitary Shia-dominated state. Iraqi Kurdish frustration with the status quo was understandable, but so too should have been the necessity of continuity. Unless the U.S. was planning on expelling Turkey from NATO and championing Kurdish independence against opposition from Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria (which are united on that particular issue), any unilateral declaration of independence was sheer folly.
As CrowBat and others have noted, the Iranian “military supply lines” to the Houthi/pro-Saleh forces in Yemen are very “modest” indeed. Houthi successes have more to do with former president Saleh’s support than Iran’s.Originally Posted by John Jenkins
Jenkins seems to ignore the fact that aside from the perception that Iran is now more influential in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria now, than it was in 2011, Iran has had to marshal all of its resources in order to preserve Assad’s rule in perhaps one-third of Syria. Not only are the IRGC and foreign Shia militias occupied in Syria or Iraq (~35,000 of them), but Syria’s once-formidable air defenses (at least 4X more capable than Iran’s) have been neutralized by the war, and no longer provide any protection from or early-warning of an airstrike on its nuclear facilities, ostensibly by Israel. In addition, Syria’s arsenal of tanks and artillery are now denied to Iran in the event of conflict with Israel. Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs aside, Israel is less threatened by Iran’s allies or auxiliaries than ever before, and Lebanese Hezbollah is in no position to pummel northern Israel as it did in 2006.Originally Posted by John Jenkins
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