From Europe News:
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has described the Muslim Brotherhood as "secular." Vice President Joseph Biden recently said the Taliban "is not our enemy." According to John Brennan, assistant to the president for counterterrorism, terrorists who proclaim they are motivated by religion should not be described using "religious terms."
Where do such ideas come from? In large measure from advisers -- so perhaps it would be instructive to examine more closely what those advisers are actually saying.
U.S. Navy Commander Youssef H. Aboul-Enein "has advised at the highest levels of the Defense Department and the intelligence community" according to the jacket notes on his book, Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat. This reader's opinion: Aboul-Enein, who was born in Mississippi and raised in Saudi Arabia, is struggling, seriously and sincerely, to grapple with the pathologies that have arisen from within the Muslim world and to formulate a coherent American response. That should not suggest that his efforts have been entirely successful.
Aboul-Enein states that the "challenge to America's national security in the twenty-first century" comes from "Militant Islamist Ideology." Good for him for not talking of "violent extremism," a term designed to hide rather than reveal. He urges that policymakers adopt a "nuanced" approach to this challenge -- one that "disaggregates" militant Islamism from both Islam and Islamism.
To charge that "all Islam is evil," he says, is a mistake. For many Muslims, Islam is "a source of values that guide conduct rather than a system that offers solutions to all problems." It is no less incorrect, he adds, to "insist that all Islam is peaceful." Islamic scripture provides ample justifications for hating, oppressing and killing non-Muslims. But it is neither accurate nor productive, he argues, to confirm the militants' claim that theirs is the only authentic interpretation of Islam -- that Muslims not waging a "jihad" against "infidels" are, at best, misguided; at worst, traitors to their faith.
As for Islamists, he confirms that they seek "unacceptable outcomes for the United States in the long run." One example: Muhammad Badi, supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said last year that Muslims should strive for "a government evolving into a rightly guided caliphate and finally mastership of the world." (...)
Defense Dept. adviser offers confusing advice
The Crescent News 24 January 2012
By Clifford May
By Clifford May
Where do such ideas come from? In large measure from advisers -- so perhaps it would be instructive to examine more closely what those advisers are actually saying.
U.S. Navy Commander Youssef H. Aboul-Enein "has advised at the highest levels of the Defense Department and the intelligence community" according to the jacket notes on his book, Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat. This reader's opinion: Aboul-Enein, who was born in Mississippi and raised in Saudi Arabia, is struggling, seriously and sincerely, to grapple with the pathologies that have arisen from within the Muslim world and to formulate a coherent American response. That should not suggest that his efforts have been entirely successful.
Aboul-Enein states that the "challenge to America's national security in the twenty-first century" comes from "Militant Islamist Ideology." Good for him for not talking of "violent extremism," a term designed to hide rather than reveal. He urges that policymakers adopt a "nuanced" approach to this challenge -- one that "disaggregates" militant Islamism from both Islam and Islamism.
To charge that "all Islam is evil," he says, is a mistake. For many Muslims, Islam is "a source of values that guide conduct rather than a system that offers solutions to all problems." It is no less incorrect, he adds, to "insist that all Islam is peaceful." Islamic scripture provides ample justifications for hating, oppressing and killing non-Muslims. But it is neither accurate nor productive, he argues, to confirm the militants' claim that theirs is the only authentic interpretation of Islam -- that Muslims not waging a "jihad" against "infidels" are, at best, misguided; at worst, traitors to their faith.
As for Islamists, he confirms that they seek "unacceptable outcomes for the United States in the long run." One example: Muhammad Badi, supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said last year that Muslims should strive for "a government evolving into a rightly guided caliphate and finally mastership of the world." (...)
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