A civil war in Islam?

[marct]

Hi Sarajevo,

Sorry, it's tax day in Canada, so my reply issomewhat limited .

Kudos to you for all the knowledge and trying to explain that problem from scientific side, but don’t you find just a little paradox in bunch of westerners (Christians I dare to say) talking about Islam and “civil war” in it when none of Islamic scholars mention such a thing!?

Hmmm, on he whole, yes, I do find it "piquant" (probably a better word than paradoxical) that this is happening. I would point out, however, that Sheik Hamed Al-Ali in his April 4 fatwah came very close to saying the same thing. While I don't read Arabic (yet - I'm just starting to learn it), memri has English translations available here. While he doesn't describe ISI as engaging in a civil war, he does state that they are perilously close to "doing the Devil's work".

On Westerners talking abot Islam, what do you expect ? Muslim's talk about the West, often when they have no idea about its background. This is a human universal - the creation of an "other".

Reading this posts, and some others (sometimes riddle with small incorrect terms and assumptions), I am left with one (I think very important) question: When one talking about dividing Muslims on “friends” and “enemies”, how that one see “Muslim friends” in today’s surroundings?!

Meaning, when West talking about Muslims friends and allies-while they killing they innocent brothers and sisters on the streets and villages, raping, invading countries and imprisoning them-who are those friends!? And how honest and loyal they can be toward someone who is doing such acts against them?

Okay, a quick comment here. Analytically it is imperative that we distinguish between types of warfare. In the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, we saw one of the worst types of warfare being practiced - you know this better than I do . Afghanistan was a different type of operation and, while far from a "clean" war, it was and is a lot "cleaner" than that being practiced by the Taliban. Iraq is, in many ways, a much less "clean" war, and that IMHO probably has to do with idiocy at the top (i.e. the belief that everything would be great once Saddam was gone) than it does with the actions of coalition troops.

Too few troops, stupid policies like de-Baathification and disbanding the Iraqi army were just a recipe for disaster. We have maybe 2 -3 reports of coalition troops going juramenado, and how many reports of supposedly "good Muslim" groups doing the same? 100? 1000? 10,000?

Were the Americans naive to assume that everything would be perfect with Saddam out of power? Of course, and no one believes that any more; I suspect most people never believed it to begin with. This is not the capture of Jerusalem, this is a series of bloody minded people evening old scores and outside extremists coming in to sir up the pot, and everyone blames the Americans (sorry, that really makes me mad).

How one can support those who are hating and killing his family and neighbors!? That’s questions that bothering me these days…

I agree, it's a hard thing to do - but look at who is doing the indiscriminate killing.

Marc