Stay Tuned
Is al Qaeda defeating itself? Jim Dunnigan looks at the possibility:
Al Qaeda has long preached the use of terror against its enemies, and the September 11, 2001 attacks were held up as a perfect example of that. But the attacks in Turkey have killed mostly Moslems, as have the recent suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda is also thought to be behind the suicide bombings in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Do you see a pattern here? Al Qaeda is not following up on September 11, 2001 with more attacks on Western targets, but is killing Moslems. Al Qaeda does have a lot of Moslems on its hit list, particularly Moslems who al Qaeda does not consider Moslem enough. But since al Qaeda recruits from Moslem populations, angering Moslem populations is suicidal to the organization.
As always with Dunnigan, you should read the whole thing — but I do have one worry with his upbeat-ish scenario.
There is nothing rational about Islamic fundamentalism. It is entirely possible (although I don’t know if it’s likely) that continued attacks on Muslems will actually encourage more crazed fundies to join in the fun of killing the slightly-less-holy-than-we-are. Hell, that’s the central tennet of any violently fundamentalist movement. Spain’s Inquisition killed a lot more Catholics than it did Jews, after all. And remember that bin Laden’s first goal isn’t the destruction of America, but the cleansing of Islam.
So, we’ll see.
I thought the Saudi attack had killed Christian Arabs? J Goldberg had a post about this over at the Corner: http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/03_11_23_corner-archive.asp#020121
TO: Stephen Green
RE: I Disagree
Yes al Qaeda is attacking Muslims and Arabs. But it is attacking those who are not toeing their flavor of Islam.
The effort is to silence or convert those who disagree with them. It’s been done before. And, I suspect that the Muslims, under years of letting other people think for them, could be susceptible to this sort of ‘argument’….shut up or we’ll kill you AND your family.
It’s been tried before. And successfully. I’m reminded of a place called Koji Do. Albeit on a smaller scale, the ruthless prevailed over the moderates by murdering them and stuffing their bodies into the latrines. The lesson was quickly learned to do it the hardliner’s way or you were dead meat.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
From Ledeen at NRO:
Instead of winning support, the terrorists had galvanized public opinion against them. But this misses the essence of the terror masters’ campaign against us. It is not our policies that inflame the hatred of the mullahs and the wahhabis, the Shiites and the Sunnis, the Osamas and the Mughniyahs. It’s not what we do, but what we are
TO: Ledeen @ NRO
RE: Really?
“Instead of winning support, the terrorists had galvanized public opinion against them.” — Ledeen@NRO
Care to provide the stats supporting that idea?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Dear All
Probably most of you never has read an arab newspaper, or heard an arab newsbroadcast. The blame for such terror attacks in Saudi Arabia, or, Turkey, is laid with the “zionists” [i.e., the CIA, or Mossad] Even in moderate countries, like Jordan and Turkey where the news may be presented more in accord with western media, the people will still believe the real attackers are non-muslims.
Ingrid has a point. Arabs manage simultaneously to believe that the 9-11 attacks were actually done by the Mossad, not bin Laden’s people, and celebrate them as great victories for the Islamist jihadis. With total irrationality like that there is no telling what Arabs will talk themselves into thinking.