Reza Aslan: US War on Terror 'Validated' Jihadists

[soloman81]

If it isn't completely about religion, then religion has nothing to do with it. This is what Reza Aslan seems to think.  He's not an honest thinking person in my opinion at all. Whether or not we fight extremists, they will still fight. They don't need that kind of validation from us. They believe they have all the validation they need already, and you're a liar if you say religion has nothing to do with it.

[JavaClick]

He is correct that no religion or people is 100% evil.

He is correct that no religion or people is 100% good.

He is mentally deficient if he truly believes that means that all religion and people are therefore equivalent.

They are not equivalent. Muslims have murdered more than 80,000 people since 9/11. Jews and Christians categorically condemn such acts regardless of perpetrator or victims, Muslims support it when it is a Muslim who is the suicide bomber. Suicide bombers are ALWAYS Muslim

[JavaClick]

1) I do not see any great Western effort at being more fanatical than Muslims. WTH is Reza talking about?

2) "Radical" Islam is simply "Fundamental" Islam, i.e., practicing the Koran the way it is written. "Peaceful" Muslims are *not* correctly following Koran.

The fundamental concept of Islam is world domination at the point of a sword. It is deflective and disingenuous to characterize this as a conflict over "identity".

[msiddiqui135]

@JavaClick where do you get this information from? It is US which is trying for world domination. Others are just fighting against freedom and to liberate themselves from occupation.

[Celtic450]

This guy has failed to address the 1 million Sephardi Jews and their removal from Arab lands at the same time the Palestinians were leaving their lands. Its not up to Israel or the jews to settle these Arabs. They have to be settled by their own arabic governments hell they can take the houses of the Sephardi Jews.

[msiddiqui135]

@Celtic450 I million jews removed by Arabs? where do you get this information? It 10 million Arabs removed from Plaestine and living as refugees.? It you guys who eliminated the entire popultaion of real local australians. It is people who wiped out the local population from 2 of the 5 continenets of the world (Australia and North America). Read wikileaks to see how hundreds of thousandwere killed by Bush, howard and Blair.

[Celtic450]

@msiddiqui135 There are no more Jewsin the middle east. They were removed in a genocide by the Arabs. Google Danny Ayalon. The English didn't murder aborigines. The Aborigines were wiped out by diseases and unlike you Arabs/muslims we respect the indigenous people and give them more opportunities than you arabs gives the copts or Berbers. There are more aborigines than there was in 1788. You are just another ignorant arab. The thousands of muslims killed by other muslims in iraq.

[msiddiqui135]

@Celtic450 Oh, ya...Local aborigines in 2 entire continent of Australia and North America were wiped out due to disease. You just changed the history. What about crusades and inquisition, maybe Aliens did it. The bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan,Vietnam, South America is due to US invasion.Read Wiki leaks for more details. The balcks and latinos are still mistreated. As long as you dont treat people of all racs and religion as equals and stop invading other countries for oil.

[Celtic450]

@msiddiqui135 As I told you, but then you are a muslim, there are more aborigines now than there was in 1788. It was illegal to murder an Aborigine and you were hung but your just another anti white racist piece of shit. The crusades were a defensive war against muslim aggression. You muslims better start treating indigenous peoples of Europe with respect or we are going to park our tanks in Mecca.

[msiddiqui135]

@Celtic450 Crusader was a defensive war? whom are you fooling. the war wa fought in muslims countries. who was the invader? Muslims fought the war to defend thier land. crusader were just a bunch of blood thirsty thugs instigated by the evil Pope using the name of God.

[Celtic450]

@msiddiqui135 You muslims were invading the Byzantine Empire. All that land was East Roman. The Arabs come from Arabia. They destroyed the indigenous peoples' and civilizations. The Crusades were in response to muslims killing christian pilgrims. Muslims are invaders everywhere from medina. Medina wasn't even muslim in the beginning. religious fanatics.

[13livefree13]

@msiddiqui135 The objects of the Crusade was to refill the coffers of the Catholic Empire so yes evil Pope and they used the Muslim occupation as an excuse as to why God had justified such an act. Add in the complete forgiveness of all your sins if you and your kingdom joined up, no wonder it was so popular at the time.

[77Merav]

The father of "jihad war" was Palestinian ( Abdullah Yusuf Azzam).

[iammready]

I read "No god but God", and it is indeed brilliant. However, I beg to differ that the Palestinians' concerns are those of mere religious identity and not of land and resources. Professor Aslan has so eloquently stated as such himself.

[44warjunkie]

What do you call a confrontation between someone who wants to fight and someone who is trying to get out of it? This is essentially what is going on right now between us and the jihadists. They want to fight and have been trying so desperately to fight us for a long time and we just want it to stop and for them to go away. Wishing for a threat to go away does not make it so people. Its time we take a stand and say F off to the jihadists.

[Wrapped4]

@44warjunkie

In reality you are just doing what Reza is saying. After the US destabilized Iraq and Afghanistan, the Jihadists became stronger. Obviously. The US (and Israel) validated their cause. Made it easier for them to recruit people.

The only way to give a blow to the Jihadists is for peace loving Christians, atheists etc in the US to unite with the peace loving Muslims and isolate the Jihadists.

Confronting them is the best present you can give them

[44warjunkie]

Except it wont happen wrapped4. The Arab regimes over there need someone to blame for all the pain they cause to their own people. Only changing their culture and their way they see the world will you find some degree of peace. And i dont think that went pretty well in Iraq.

[mingalabaa]

@44warjunkie It's very naive to say "we just want it to stop and for them to go away".

[smart12day]

What you fail to bring up is that jihadists want a religious war. They believe that this will usher in a time of world wide islam. That would be a horrible war where there are no non-combatants in their eyes except for children of islam.

[spatularizer]

Reza does not fail to mention this, it's most certainly in his book, or were you reffering to someone else?

[EasyEs]

A well spoken young man. I disagree with him on many levels but I enjoy hearing his point of view.  He has some very good point though.

[13otany13ay]

The terrorists demands are war. The west gave in to those demands. We surrendered many many years ago.

[reaperq88]

exactly how? the fundamentalists who claim to be muslim abducted the religion and are causing the suffering of muslims and non-muslims. we must stand by and do nothing???

[VAR1UM]

yeah unfortunately obama has NO BALLS. And i voted 4 him! He tries to cater too much to general ideals. He cant just make his own damn mind about whats right and whats wrong. only what would piss off the least amount of people.

[AcheronDeep]

Lawfare doesn't work. Period.

[Chrisnoscrub047]

This is exactly what he was talking about on Bill Maher. This is the topic that I think he is spot on on.

[blackiron60]

And now Obama can't break free (if he truly ever wanted to) of this mentality of cosmic war, and America is trapped even though Bush is gone.

[franksvenatra]

Why can't he? Is he really so blind to the fact that this war on terror is what extremists on both sides wanted in order to increase their powerbase? What if he really wanted to break free of it?

[blackiron60]

Too many powerful interests are benefitting from the "cosmic war" mentality. If Obama really wanted to break free he would have started making significant moves by now. He hasn't.

[franksvenatra]

Yeah. I just think if he really wanted to scale things back, he could.

[mingalabaa]

@blackiron60 Obama can't. He is puppet.

[tamari123]

He is breaking free from the mentality. It's just the actual policy that needs careful and slow change now. You can't just take the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and hope Al-Qaeda and Taliban don't take over. Think of US Mideast foreign policies as a critical patient - You have to stabilize things first, before you more forward and cure them.