Thursday, May 10, 2007

Jordanian Jihadists

Sitting at Starbucks, I got myself a copy of the New York Times and there, on the front page, read "Jordanian Jihadists Long to Kill and Die in Iraq". The article was a long one and contained many interviews with a few Jordanians willing to go to Iraq and fight there. It also mentioned details of a few Jordanians who already went there and died.

My first objection was to the word "Jihadist", I rarely ever heard it in Arabic. I know there's Jihad, but a "Jihadist" is now synonymous with terrorist, again misuse of words that will make Muslims angry. The article is focused on how much Zarqa's citizens are impressed by Zarqawi and anyone who decides to go and fight in Iraq.

Imagine Diego Maradona was from Kerak. He'd be an idol there and every other newborn in Kerak will be named Diego. His pictures will be everywhere and people would really want to be like him. Zarqawi seems to have made a similar effect in Zarqa, and Zarqa is well known to be a center for Islamists for many years, way before the war in Iraq started, but the emergence of Zarqawi had an additive effect and many citizens living there want to be another Zarqawi.

The main problem with those kids going to fight in Iraq is that their main goal is to kill as many non-Muslims as possible, the Shiia being considered non-Muslims. They're not seeking the end of American occupation or democracy or peace in Iraq, they're seeking the dominance of one religious sect over another in one big country where separation is impossible.

Just like it takes plenty of time and effort to make a great scientist, it takes plenty of time and effort to make a "Jihadist". You got the money- oil-rich governments and the US who supported Islamic movements for many years, you got the time- it's been there for at least 20 years, and now you got the most perfect circumstances; Bush calling it a "crusade" war and attacking a country for no reason and fueling a war among Muslims and eventually executing its previous president on the night of Eid Al-Adha with people around him chanting racist slogans.

Yesterday a Jordanian taxi driver, Muhammad Shnewer, was arrested in New Jersey in a plot with six others to attack a soldier base in America. His group was not connected to al -Qaeda, it was homegrown. I tend to believe that there are plenty of men out there who are willing to do exactly like Shnewer did. Nobody was born a terrorist and if you consider the lives and environments in which these blowing themselves up lived you'll be amazed by how easily a "Jihadist" could have been a doctor, a scientist or a football player like Diego Maradona.

41 comments:

Mohanned said...

I actually read this specific article and many others, but who to blame for this?
Thats how list them:
1- The occupation.
2- Media propoganda specially aljazeera.
3- Dicatorship and opression of freedom.
4- Bad economic situation, eventhough most of "suicide" bombers are middle class or above and are well educated.
Who to blame, the list is long and the last item in the list is the "bomber" himself..
Good luck!
BTW here is a link to the article in NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/world/middleeast/04bombers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Mohanned said...

And this is teh link about shenareh or whatever his name is!!

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/104-05092007-1343668.html

The Observer said...

Good post!

I guess it is the culture that has been built since the occupation of Palestine.

They teach us patriotism and the honor of one giving his own life for the sake of his country at schools.

It got mixed up with our social values and high regards of masculinity and the defnition of being a man.

Add to the mix the natural racist behaviour of human beings and the political agendas of the leaders.

I guess it is very easy to creat a terrorist under these circumstances.

The Math Skeptic said...

"Zarqawi seems to have made a similar effect in Zarqa, and Zarqa is well known to be a center for Islamists for many years, way before the war in Iraq started, but the emergence of Zarqawi had an additive effect and many citizens living there want to be another Zarqawi."

Aren't all people from Zarqa technically Zarqawis? Well, all the men, anyhow. The women would be Zarqawias, I'm guessing.

Gluon said...

A couple of points. First, jihadists ARE terrorists. They're the worst kind of terrorists - ones who will butcher innocent people in the name of God, making their incredible evil a part of the religion. Now, Islam is seen as a great evil and an abomination in the west. Thanks to all your jihadists. Way to go.

Second, who's to blame? Your religion. It's backward, medieval, violent, intolerent, hateful, expansionist, imperialist, and I could go on and on, but muslims won't care. Their pride will force them to defend it, even though it's the most loathesome thing ever seen on this planet in all of human history. You guys rock!

Third, the New York Times is an extremely biased newspaper that has lost almost all credibility among fair-minded people and is only regarded well by far leftists and America-haters. I was a subscriber for many, many years and finally gave up on them several years ago because they were just plain treasonous to their own country. If you dislike the USA, then you would probably have no problem with the New York Times. They dislike the USA, too.

And lastly, Americans are getting very fed up with people who come to our country and reward our kindness and hospitality with murder and hate. Soon, we will no longer care about separating the bad muslims from the "good" ones. We will just want ALL of them to get out! Many Americans look forward to the day when all muslims are deported and no muslims are ever again allowed into our country. Foreigners have no right to come here, and since so many behave so horribly, soon the American people will say enough is enough. Keep them all out.

Some of you might want to try putting yourself in an American's shoes and see how it looks from our side. What muslim nation would tolerate refugees and immigrants returning a helping hand by murdering the citizens of that muslim nation? None. Soon we won't tolerate it either. Then muslims can stay in their own countries and stagnate like they've been stagnating for centuries. It won't stop them from blaming the west for everything bad that happens to them or has happened to them or will happen to them. They'll blame everyone but themselves, their leaders, their disgusting religious authorities, and of course the ultimate source of all their misery - Islam!

Get civilized. Get a new religion. Join the human race

Anonymous said...

Gluon,

A couple of points.

First, a peek at the US history will be important to drive home some points. Your ancestors fled the excesses of the church and fled Europe. Gently they started a diabolic rampage and wiped out as many native Indians as they could. Not to forget the blacks and the hispanics thereafter. Three cheers to you folks, you guys kick royal butt!


"Your religion. It's backward, medieval, violent, intolerent, hateful, expansionist, imperialist?"

Second,the wont of every delusional and purile mind that wants to believe that CHURCHIANITY is progressive,un anachronic,peaceful, non-expansionist and non imperial. Churchinity and Churchians give Jesus and Christianity a bad name really!


"And lastly, Americans are getting very fed up with people who come to our country and reward our kindness and hospitality with murder and hate"

Lastly, America is just as responsible for all the mess, if not more.The whole world is very fed up with the American Foreign policy and Americas own children are disgusted with its Foreign Policy and its utter contempt of their citizens lives. America seems to have forgotten handshakes, they now practice only arm twisting!

Get civilized, stop talking religion, join the human race, know what humanity is all about and then try to understand God and Godly dispostions!


I am not even sure if you were in a position to understand the point of view and the concerned disposition of the blogger!

There was no need to be so acerbic in the first place!

Omar Qadan said...

أعتقد أن كلمة جهادي أصبحت شائعة وهي تستخدم لوص حركات الجهاد السلفية أما بالنسبة لأسباب الإنطلاق للجهاد هي واضحة الإحتلال والظلم الواقع على المسلمين هو السبب و المشكلة الكبرى أن هذه الحركات الجهادية في نمو مطرد وهذا الامر مخيف فهم ليسو ا كالإخوان المسلمين همي يقاتلون للسيطرة الكاملة و يعتبرون الحرب الاهلية في العلااق أنها الحل الكامل والشامل للمشكلة العراقية فهم كما قلت لا يقاتلون من اجل السلان او الحرية هم يقاتلون من أجل السيطرة و يجب أن تكون السيطرة لهم وإلا سيستمروا بالقتال

Gluon said...

Well, A, my apologies for being so acerbic. I didn't intend to offend anyone, even though I knew I might. But that's what comes from telling the truth or at least expressing an opinion that differs from the typical arab one. Americans have a reputation as being blunt and plain-spoken. We tell the truth even if it offends. In the middle east, arabs avoid the truth if it causes embarassment or humiliation or leads to a loss of face. But the owner of this blog is in America now, and I figure he or she will understand that this is just our style. We are not confrontational to start fights, but to get at the truth. Self-criticism is also an American trait, but I understand it doesn't exist in some parts of the world.

Your knowledge of American colonial history is a warped version favored by America-haters and taught throughout the mideast, but it is not true. Americans didn't "start a diabolical rampage". Warring indian tribes were fighting "diabolical" wars against each other before we settled the continent and throughout the settlement period. Some tribes were even completely wiped out and exterminated by opposing indian tribes. I suppose that's our fault, too? And of course the hundreds, if not thousands of massacres committed by those same "peaceful" indian tribes have nothing to do with the justified retaliation of the settlers.

I should expect such nonsense from an arab. It's not much different from the attitude that the Israelis are not supposed to defend themselves and when they do against the "diabolical" terrorism of the arab refugees, they are somehow the diabolical ones. I forgot that infidels are supposed to quietly accept being murdered and not fight back. Well, when settlers in America were murdered, they fought back and were far more proficient at killing than the indians. Government sponsored killing of the indians were far, far less consequential (although I admit it did happen occasionally) than the retaliation of the inhabitants of the frontier who acted on their own.

As for blacks and hispanics, England settled my country and gave us our laws and traditions. Slavery was part of it. Almost from the start, some states abolished slavery and started the fight to end it entirely. It was western countries that were first to abolish the slave trade, and let's not forget that the arab states continued to own slaves right into the twentieth century. Oh wait, there are still muslim societies that condone slavery and it still exists in some muslim lands. Like I said, join the human race. And hispanics have had privileged treatment (as have blacks) for the last 40 years, with quotas and "affirmative action" and "diversity" programs to advance them ahead of more qualified white people. If the USA is guilty of anything racist these days, it is racism against white people.

As for your criticism of Christianity, it no longer applies. At first Christianity was an improvement over the barbarism that came before. They were more progressive and peaceful than the Roman empire or the kingdoms that replaced it. But, as their power increased, so did their abuses of power, and their transformation into something more sinister. There was a period of several centuries, a thousand years actually, in which they behaved very badly. Westerners learned to curtail the power of the Church and they have since been largely defanged. By contrast, Islam is very much an out-of-control "religion" that spreads death and destruction and misery everywhere it goes. Don't compare what was and what is now. It ruins your argument.

As for blaming America (why am I not surprised?) for the muslim wars of extermination and the terrible mess muslim countries are in, you must have been brainwashed in another country to be spouting that tired old line. We are not required to support or defend backward, hateful, tyrannical regimes that destroy their own countries and bring war to their neighbors. Arab countries suffered through one of the shortest periods of colonization in history by the west - most arab countries only had to endure the europeans between the two world wars. I don't count the Ottoman occupation since it was muslim on muslim activity. Yes, France was in North Africa for longer than that, but as far as colonization goes, the arab world got off easy. Are you going to blame all your troubles on that forever, too?

And why should we care what the rest of the world thinks about our foreign policy? The majority of the countries in the world are dictatorships, backwards and miserable. They hate and resent the US. Of course they don't like our foreign policy. Well, we hate the foreign policy of muslim states. Do we blame it for our problems? Do we demand that countries act against their own interests so as to satisfy us? Well, muslim states want us to change our policies to accomodate them. What arrogance.

I don't know why you think we should extend a friendly "handshake" to people with blood on their hands constantly talking about us as pigs and dogs, and allowing mullahs to preach murder and subjugation of our people. Oh, wait, I know - we're infidels and we have no right to act in any way that displeases our masters the mighty muslims. Your holy book may tell you that you are destined to rule the world, but it's not our holy book. We don't have any respect for it as a holy book at all. It reads more like a war manual for conquest. Oops, there I go being an uppity kuffar again. I should just go "yes, massah, no massah" and keep my eyes cast downwards to avoid offending my new masters.

Get over yourselves. We americans have contempt for such a bunch of immature crybabies and whiners. You people get no respect because you deserve none. You've done nothing to advance civilization or do any good for humanity. Instead, you export violence and hate and expect the rest of the world to recognize you as leaders. You don't even qualify as followers. Muslim societies are a big negative in the world. They drag the world backwards, and the rest of humanity has to develop the technology and cure the diseases and produce the products that the poor, oppressed muslim world it too incompetent to produce. And in their rage at their own pathetic situation, muslims will continue to whine and strike out in violence like children throwing a tantrum.

Now I say this all not to offend, although as I said, I know it will. Muslims need to see things from the point of view of Americans. What we see is a nightmare. Don't expect to be treated as an equal, because you're not even close. A major transformation will have to take place in arab countries before they are held in less contempt, and Islam will have to undergo drastic and far-reaching reform before it is even considered a religion. Right now, it looks far more like a genocidal death cult than a religion. So don't expect us to cut it any slack. It doesn't deserve any.

And what's with the "Churchianity"? Is that to distinguish between a politically active and malevolent medieval Church and the relatively benign Christianity from which it sprang? I suggest you discard all the learning you underwent in your muslim country and read some history books by some non-America-haters. As you can imagine, we see things quite differently here. And if you don't see things our way, then stay out. We don't want you in our country polluting our public discourse with your ancient hate and venom.

Lastly, I didn't mention Christianity or recommend it. Perhaps Buddhism, or Confucianism or the Bahai religion would suit you more. Anything, even a wacky religion like Hinduism is better than Islam. Oh, I forgot. You risk getting your head cut off if you leave Islam. What an insecure religion that prescribes death for wanting to worship in a different way. Drag yourself out of the seventh century and try something different. How many hundreds of years until you realize your faith is the problem, not anything outsiders do?

Reading these comments back to myself, I can see that they're somewhat offensive, so my apologies again, but sometimes things have to be said. Too bad it's not muslims saying it to other muslims.

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