Sure and I’ve strongly criticized extremist Islam. It’s not the only threat out there and obsessing and living in fear over Islam will lead to the very war of civilizations being warned over. I’ve brought this up many times before. In my neighborhood there are many Muslims and a mosque two blocks away from me. Other than taking up parking in side streets during prayer times. I have no problems with them. I have far more to fear from those who espouse nationalistic and nativist sentiments in the US than I do my Muslim neighbors.
Very much on the contrary. Foolishly not realizing it as a threat and viewing the intentions of political Islam through a naive Western lens is what will allow political Islam to gain further ground in the war of civilizations they have already been leading. Best example: "Queers for Palestine" - this is emblematic for the incredibly naive self-destruction of depraved Western civilizations when it comes to the ideology of political Islam. Your view is the dumb leftist view that whatever Islamists do is "just a reaction" to some sort of oppression. No, it isn't. Political Islam is a supremacist, aggressive ideology all the way back to its roots. It only acts as a victim as long as that is convenient to lull in the dumbasses on the political left in the West.
For sure, jumping to conclusions is something that never happens in this thread so good to continue that.
Extremism is a threat to all non-exremists. This much is obvious. Question has always been - what do you do about it? We see that once it takes root, it's nearly impossible to get rid of. Look at Afghanistan, where America's direct battle against extremism failed. If you want to fight against extremism, then we have to figure out how to stop supporting it. And that starts with the Saudi Royal family which is the foundation of much of the "poltical Islam" you speak of. The question is, how does the US help spread secularism is the Islamic world. We need more Iraq's. We messed up in Egypt. And what we can do in Palestine is ensure that a secular gov't is installed. Allowing Hamas to take over in the first place was a massive mistake.
Very fair question. As to the Saudi Royal family - historically, I agree with you, but from personal exposure and conversations, I do believe that as much as MBS might have blood on his hands, he is bringing change. I think the "new" Saudis basically want to live. They are no longer adherents to a death cult. They are much more pragmatic than one would think. They were just about to acknowledge Israel - I believe that was the true reason Iran/Hamas did what they did on Oct. 7th - they were trying to prevent that. Iran is a much worse force of evil in the world nowadays. As distasteful as it may seem, I think Jared Kushner/Trump were right on where to place their bets in the Middle East.
Some excerpts from the Hamas Charter (in order): Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it. The spirits of its fighters meet with the spirits of all the fighters who have sacrificed their lives on the soil of Palestine, ever since it was conquered by the companions of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, and until this day. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is realised. The Islamic Resistance Movement: The Movement's programme is Islam. From it, it draws its ideas, ways of thinking and understanding of the universe, life and man. It resorts to it for judgement in all its conduct, and it is inspired by it for guidance of its steps. The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine. Moslem Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It is characterised by its deep understanding, accurate comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts of all aspects of life, culture, creed, politics, economics, education, society, justice and judgement, the spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of the occult and conversion to Islam. fear Allah and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils. Time extent of the Islamic Resistance Movement: By adopting Islam as its way of life, the Movement goes back to the time of the birth of the Islamic message, of the righteous ancestor, for Allah is its target, the Prophet is its example and the Koran is its constitution. The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine. He who accepts life without religion, has taken annihilation as his companion for life. The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes. The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia (law) and the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Moslems consecrated these lands to Moslem generations till the Day of Judgement. It happened like this: When the leaders of the Islamic armies conquered Syria and Iraq. Any procedure in contradiction to Islamic Sharia, where Palestine is concerned, is null and void. Resisting and quelling the enemy become the individual duty of every Moslem, male or female. A woman can go out to fight the enemy without her husband's permission, and so does the slave: without his master's permission. Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight. Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitrators. There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Palestine is an Islamic land which has the first of the two kiblahs (direction to which Moslems turn in praying), the third of the holy (Islamic) sanctuaries, and the point of departure for Mohamed's midnight journey to the seven heavens (i.e. Jerusalem). The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters. It is necessary to instill in the minds of the Moslem generations that the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis. Palestine contains Islamic holy sites. "I swear by the holder of Mohammed's soul that I would like to invade and be killed for the sake of Allah, then invade and be killed, and then invade again and be killed." Woman in the home of the fighting family, whether she is a mother or a sister, plays the most important role in looking after the family, rearing the children and embuing them with moral values and thoughts derived from Islam. She has to teach them to perform the religious duties in preparation for the role of fighting awaiting them. She has to be of sufficient knowledge and understanding where the performance of housekeeping matters are concerned. The Islamic spirit is what should prevail in every Moslem society. The society that confronts a vicious enemy which acts in a way similar to Nazism, making no differentiation between man and woman, between children and old people. The imperialistic forces in the Capitalist West and Communist East, support the enemy with all their might, in money and in men. These forces take turns in doing that. The day Islam appears, the forces of infidelity would unite to challenge it, for the infidels are of one nation. Because of the situations surrounding the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, of the ideological confusion prevailing in the Arab world as a result of the ideological invasion under whose influence the Arab world has fallen since the defeat of the Crusaders and which was, and still is, intensified through orientalists, missionaries and imperialists, the Organization adopted the idea of the secular state. And that it how we view it. Secularism completely contradicts religious ideology. Attitudes, conduct and decisions stem from ideologies. That is why, with all our appreciation for The Palestinian Liberation Organization - and what it can develop into - and without belittling its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, we are unable to exchange the present or future Islamic Palestine with the secular idea. The Islamic nature of Palestine is part of our religion and whoever takes his religion lightly is a loser. The day The Palestinian Liberation Organization adopts Islam as its way of life, we will become its soldiers, and fuel for its fire that will burn the enemies. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. "May the cowards never sleep." Jihad is not confined to the carrying of arms and the confrontation of the enemy. The effective word, the good article, the useful book, support and solidarity - together with the presence of sincere purpose for the hoisting of Allah's banner higher and higher - all these are elements of the Jihad for Allah's sake. It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region. World Zionism, together with imperialistic powers, try through a studied plan and an intelligent strategy to remove one Arab state after another from the circle of struggle against Zionism, in order to have it finally face the Palestinian people only. Egypt was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of the struggle, through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. They are trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements and to bring them outside the circle of struggle. The Islamic Resistance Movement calls on Arab and Islamic nations to take up the line of serious and persevering action to prevent the success of this horrendous plan, to warn the people of the danger emanating from leaving the circle of struggle against Zionism. Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying. Leaving the circle of struggle with Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who does that. Arab and Islamic Peoples should augment by further steps on their part; Islamic groupings all over the Arab world should also do the same, since all of these are the best-equipped for the future role in the fight with the warmongering Jews. fighters join other fighters and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty while loudly proclaiming: Hail to Jihad. The Islamic Resistance Movement adopts Islam as its way of life. Islam is its creed and religion.
Two claims can be true: - There are civilian casualties - There are "Pallywood" crisis actors (like Mr. FAFO) Any civilian casualties are to be blamed on Hamas.
Certainly some of it can be the fault of Hamas. However the evil perpetrated by Hamas doesn't automatically excuse all civilian casualties.
They definitely have in the past. They have recently (a few months ago) assassinated a civilian journalist. They then tried to cover it up. If a terrorist is at an event with 3,000 people and the anti-terrorists decide bomb the whole event, the others weren't the target, but it isn't okay that a bomb was used in that case because of civilian deaths. Criticism of the methods used by the anti-terrorists would be justified.
Article talks about both side claiming the other sides using “crisis actors”. Both sides are dismissing the horrible reality and just push it aside. Denial here but also rationalization elsewhere.
‘You shall blame’ sounds like forced propaganda, and it just doesn’t work. Civilians on both sides are blaming the other side. Some are also blaming their political leaders, but that’s secondary to the side that is killing them.
I invite you to harken back to this post and its accompanying article. true, the latter is mostly about the Yom Kippur war, but there is some discussion of the six day war as well.
The Avalon Project : Hamas Covenant 1988 (yale.edu) Some of the more violent/extreme excerpts you cited are actually quotations from other Islamic sources that they referenced (generally in a positive way) in their charter. Just to be clear. Also, here is the rest of the paragraph from Article 6 of their charter that you excerpted above: The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned. In the absence of Islam, strife will be rife, oppression spreads, evil prevails and schisms and wars will break out. My reading of the original 1988 charter is that Hamas sought to establish, through violent Jihad, Islamic supremacy throughout historic Palestine. People of non-Islamic faith who are willing to accept this Islamic supremacy will be allowed to live in peace and security and continue to practice their faith (or so they claim). As in other despotic, theocratic states in the region, non-Muslims would likely be oppressed and marginalized. No one with any liberal, democratic sensibilities should find this a remotely acceptable arrangement. The revised 2017 manifesto is more moderate and accommodating, given the political realities that exist. While the 1988 charter uses language that casts "Jews" as the enemy, the 2017 one makes an explicit point about them not being the enemy. In the end, these are political documents that may very well conceal the true aims and beliefs of many (or most) within the organization. Actions matter more than words.
