David Ignatius’s column today explains jihadists’ reactions to the Obama election.
Before the election, the radical Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradhawi even issued a fatwa supporting John McCain: “Personally, I would prefer for the Republican candidate, McCain, to be elected. This is because I prefer the obvious enemy who does not hypocritically [conceal] his hostility toward you . . . to the enemy who wears a mask [of friendliness].”
Obama makes the jihadists nervous because he is an appealing new face whose ascension undermines the belief that Islam and the West are locked in an inescapable clash of civilizations. “The Democrats kill you slowly without you noticing it. . . . They are like a snake whose touch is not felt until its poison enters your body,” observes Qaradhawi.
Maybe the “like a snake” line was published before, but I didn’t see it. Although even I think Qaradhawi gives the Dems too much credit, it paints an interesting picture: The Dems are cunning and subtle; Republicans are hotheaded fools who react with their emotions instead of their brains.
The real danger of Islamic terrorism, which the war hawk Right is too foolish to see, is not what they can do to us. It’s what they can provoke us into doing to ourselves.
“Even in the Arab world, Obama is very popular,” explains Jean-Pierre Filiu, a French scholar of Islam. “The global jihadists leaned toward McCain because they hoped the confrontation would get worse.”
Four more years of Bush was just what they wanted, and they didn’t get it. On the other hand, the financial crisis is cheering them considerably. Part of Osama bin Laden’s original plan was to lure us into an expensive war in the Middle East that would topple our economy, remember.
Filiu says that among radical Muslims, there is a growing belief that we are entering an apocalyptic “Battle of the End of Time” foretold in a famous saying of the prophet Muhammad. This hadith predicted that the climax would come in the land known as Khorasan, which today includes Afghanistan, the tribal areas of Pakistan and parts of Iran. Filiu has gathered evidence of this Muslim eschatology in a new book called “L’Apocalypse dans l’Islam,” which will be published soon in English.
Maybe they and the extremist Christian fundies can build an apocalyptic theme park where they can act out their fantasies without killing the rest of us.
Unrelated, but a good read: Tod Lindberg, “The Center-Right Nation Exits Stage Left.” And Frank Rich is a hoot today.
This is quite fascinating, in its way. Thanks for the links.
The Christian end time fundies and their Islamic counterparts are mirrors of each other, both revel in the same pathological mental state. They’re like two elephants fighting each other in the dining room, threatening to take down the whole house.
It’s so obvious that we have to outgrow right wing lizard brain “thinking”.
Republican hotheads so it would seem. But maybe just enough of them are cool, calculating, greedy, sociopathic Merchants of Death for whom wars are the only things that make them sleep well at night. Who’s going to buy their killing machines if there are no wars going on.
When the Cold War – manufactured as a courtesy to the weapons trade – ended, the Merchants faced redundancy. Infiltrating governments, political parties, disgruntled colonials, fanatical religious groups, their redundancy didn’t last long.
The way in which the press frames the stories is very interesting.
So many times I read about “the radical cleric” so and so or the” radical president of Iran”, but never do we see “The Radical Preacher John Hagee”, or “The Radical Minister (uh, CEO)Pat Robertson”, or “the Radical President George W. Bush”.
Interesting, indeed, since the “radicals” in Iraq and Iran DID NOT travel thousands of miles to drop smart bombs or cluster bombs on “suspected terrorists”.
Yeah, our fundies can beat up their fundies….
But at what cost?
In the words of Hans und Franz, “hear me now, und believe me tomorrow…..”
It was rather obvious to me that the jihadists preferred Bush and McCain over Kerry and Obama. Unfortunately, we have our counterparts to the jihadists in the United States.
There are lots of commentaries in the press and on television now about the future of the Republicans and the direction its party will take in the next couple of years (and specifically for the 2010 congressional election.)
Newt Gingrich on Face The Nation yesterday made it pretty clear that Sarah Palin was not the direction Republicans would go toward. Yet, Palin is getting lots of attention around the country, most recently at the Republican Governor’s Conference, and she doesn’t seem ready to let go of her anti-Obama and anti-Democratic statements.
Thomas Edsall, in a really good article on HuffPo, said:
And if there are any moderate (or even liberal) Republicans left in the world, they have been so destroyed by the conservative party members that they would either have to start a new party or, as many seem to be doing, become Democrats.
I watched Huckabee’s show on Fox last night for the first time and found an outpost for the Pro-Life (read “anti-women”) and completely Christian Republicans who are not going to go away soon and who will continue to let Democrats have control of the important issues of economy, security and diversity. As long as Republicans are ready to fragment the population, the Democrats will maintain their strength.
It will be interesting to see what the results are of today’s Obama-McCain meeting. If McCain becomes a leader under Obama on some of the issues they agree on, it will mark another point in the new Administrations unification of all citizens and leave the extreme conservatives either farther out.
This will be a day to watch.
Under The LobsterScope
How lame will the Lame Duck Session be? The guess is that it will be pretty lame.
There will likely be a focus on an automotive industry bailout for which there is no unity of support but which everyone, including Obama in a statement during his 60 Minutes interview last night, seems to think is necessary in some way or another. Some will try to tie it to development of hybrid and electric vehicles (like Chevy’s Volt) and some will just look at another short-term loan in the billions. If there were a focus, it would be more likely to have a significant accomplishment. It may only extend unemployment benefits, however.
Meanwhile, newly elected congressfolk, who don’t start till January. are coming in to learn the ropes.
Under The LobsterScope
I recall similar statements about Kerry in 2004 (that the jihadists feared him because he would cooly hunt down and terminate them, whereas Bush was easily distracted).
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[tinfoil]
I think when Bush won in 2000, that was Osama’s signal that it was time to attack America. He (correctly) read Bush (and Cheney) as panicky and stupid and reflexively violent. Nine months later, boom, attacks.
Had Gore won, the 9-11 attacks might not have even been attempted (and for sure Gore wouldn’t have ignored the Aug9 PDB and might have been able to prevent it entirely).
[/tinfoil]
“Maybe they and the extremist Christian fundies can build an apocalyptic theme park where they can act out their fantasies without killing the rest of us.”
haha. Osama Bin Laden on a stick. You can bite his head off and feel better about yourself…come in kids sizes too!