Assessing Al-Qaeda (merged thread)

[SteveMetz]

Great article and thanks for the link. Agree wholeheardetly. We've burnt the Army to ash over the last 17 years, we need to take a long pause and realize that military actions has definitive limits for countless reasons.

I think there are two counteracting forces at work in the world right now. Globalization and the rise of non-state actors. The patient who gets to feel the brunt of these two forces is the nation-state - both globalization and the rise of non-state actors pull the nation state apart from two different spectrums. Globalization pulls it apart from the economic angle, and the non-state actors pull it apart from the political, religious and cultural angles. Globalization really means homogenization - you see the same stores, brand names and the like everywhere you go. On a personal level, I hate this but you can't stop progress, even if its not progress.

I think Americans like "either/or" scenarios way too much. We reduce everything to this dichotomy, and the world is much, much more complex and grey. I suppose the media could be blamed, but in reality it's a matter of self education and not trusting what is put out in front of you as gospel.

The Moslems are no better and no worse then most of us in the world. There is a small minority of Qtubists who are deluded into thinking they are the new blend of Leninist/Mohammedanian vanguard of religious revolutionaries. They tend to die a lot, mainly by choice. Isolate them through good propaganda (I mean IO), and increase the standards of living in Islamic countries and they will die off.

I just signed off on a very interesting forthcoming publication by my Islamic studies expert. Among other things, she explains why the word "Qtubists" (which is in wide circulation) is wrong. I'll pass along the link when the study comes out. I learned a lot from it myself (in my eternal quest to rebut those hundreds of people who consider me uneducable).

[Ski]

We have to label the radical Sunni terrorists as something. I hear Salafist/Wahhabist/Qtubist - I'll be interested to see what her definition of "right" is.

[SteveMetz]

We have to label the radical Sunni terrorists as something. I hear Salafist/Wahhabist/Qtubist - I'll be interested to see what her definition of "right" is.

They are out of the salafi tradition (although, of course, not all salafis are extremists). Some but not all of them are out of the wahabist tradition. Qtub influenced them but, according to my professor, developed a critique of the West and call for piety, but not an ideology of "war."

[Tom Odom]

They are out of the salafi tradition (although, of course, not all salafis are extremists). Some but not all of them are out of the wahabist tradition. Qtub influenced them but, according to my professor, developed a critique of the West and call for piety, but not an ideology of "war."

All correct but in the interest of labeling I would recommend irhabists (versus salafis and/or wahabis for the reasons Steve gives or as jihadists because that puts a single meaning on jihad, which is inaccurate and misleading) and continued use of extremists as an effective descriptor of them (versus terrorists as a trite label for their intent).

Tom

[SteveMetz]

All correct but in the interest of labeling I would recommend irhabists (versus salafis and/or wahabis for the reasons Steve gives or as jihadists because that puts a single meaning on jihad, which is inaccurate and misleading) and continued use of extremists as an effective descriptor of them (versus terrorists as a trite label for their intent).

Tom

I guess we can say what we want but my professor is quite critical of attempts by non Muslims to shape or promote the Arabic words that Muslims use. I myself stick to "extremists" or "militants." Of course, there are problems with that as well since the category would include both Osama bin Laden and Richard Perle.