Fareed Zakaria GPS: Al Qaeda vs. Islam
On the eve of the invasion of Iraq, George Bush, famously or infamously, had to be instructed on the existence of and differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims. He had no idea--despite centuries of warfare between the two sects--that there was a difference.
Sadly, that cultural ignorance of most Americans is still being played and preyed upon when fostering fear of Islam here, especially in regards to the Cordoba House. As has been previously reported, the Cordoba House is being built by Sufi Muslims, a mystical sub-sect of the Shia Muslims and considered apostates of Wahabbist Sunni sub-sect of al Qaeda.
Fareed Zakaria highlights further proof of the al Qaeda hatred of the Sufis with the July attack on a Lahore, Pakistan Sufi shrine during prayers, which killed 41 and injured 175 more. What gets lost in the amped-up "fear of the Other" rhetoric of Gingrich and Palin and driven by media like Fox News, is that this is not a battle of Islam vs. the US.
Why would al Qaeda attack a holy place at a time of prayer? Because it is a Sufi shrine, part of a sect that al Qaeda despises and regards as a deadly foe in the real battle it is fighting, the battle within Islam.
The Sufis are a sector of Islam originating in South Asia. They're all about mysticism, love, brotherhood and devotion, with very little attention to dogma. They believe in saints, shrines, music, dance, and follow a very liberal interpretation of the Koran.
Sufi poets routinely extol the virtues of wine and song, both forbidden in the purer versions of Islam. Sufism has always believed in tolerance towards other people and religion, and in peace. You can see why al Qaeda views it as its mortal enemy. The more Muslims accept some version of Sufi Islam, the more dangerous for al Qaeda and its extreme jihadist philosophy.
It can't be said enough, with all the misinformation out there: Islam doesn't hate us. This is a battle between al Qaeda and everyone else that doesn't follow their own narrow vision of Islam, which includes other Muslims. The opposition to the Cordoba House is exactly what al Qaeda wants to see.
And how sad is it that George W. Bush eventually came around to understanding this divide and was more moderate in his statements about the Muslim world than the current crop of Republican leaders?
Wahhabi in your bonnet...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
From an eye witness – A man walks through the crowd at the Ground Zero protest and is mistaken as a Muslim. The crowd turns on him and confronts him. The man in the blue hard hat calls him a coward and tries to fight him. The tall man who I think was one of the organizers tried to get between the two men. Later I caught up with the man who’s name is Kenny. He is a Union carpenter who works at Ground Zero. We discussed what a scary moment that was for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaNRWMN-F4&fe...
Are you proud, Repubs? This is the monster you created. An ignorant, hate filled rabid mob.
I'm just shocked by the video you posted. I've been worried about the growing bigotry seen from every corner these days. back in May I made a youtube post on the subject. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ83RKfwOuI
We are not alone.
-1) He was darker-skinned than the vast majority of the 'Baggers?
-2) He wore a white cap, like so many guys (of various groups) do, at least in Miami and probably in LA, among other places?
-3) He didn't back down to the white noise misdirected at him?
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Mobs can smell fear, you know - like all wild animals...
[I may just have stuffed cotton for a brain, but even I know this is just wrong...]
... lynching and mob mentality are not anything new to the American experience in the least.
But you know there are plenty of pigment challenged fools who are "itching" to get back to the "good old days." (Which were neither good, nor that old).
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
That's a really disgusting video. Proud Americans-- jeezuz.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
...are sort of like the hippies of the Muslim world. Peace, love, forgiveness, and a nice glass of wine with a beautiful companion... that's close to Paradise. No wonder extremists hate them! Muslim extremists are the right-wing crazies of their world.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
Miss Sarah ever read any of Jaladdin Rumi's beautiful poetry...Nah!!!
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Mrs. Palin prefers to ban books than to read them, like so many of her ilk.
Election 2012: Be Educated! Be Active! Vote!
www.phoenixjustice.com
I was trying to explain this to people down my way last week. The arts and peace with others have no place in the Taliban's world view. So, if course the Taliban and Al Qaeda have been killing Sufis as much as possible. Due to the right wing hysteria over this "Burlington Coat Factory" center, the US now looks afraid of Sufis.
Not only silly, but makes us as a country look weak in a military mission. New recruiting tagline for Al Qaeda: How hard can it be to fight troops from a country that is afraid of a bunch of internal and external peace seeking poets?
Sadly most people don't know a Sufi from a suffix.
What kinda peeps did this?
"The 2008 Mumbai attacks were more than ten coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamic terrorists"
Study the symptoms not the virus...
I've been reading "American Taliban" by Markos Moulitsas for about a week now. In the book he has been showing all the various ways that the right in this country is like the taliban with many of the same outlooks and even the same beliefs.
I can only imagine how much noise the wingnuts would make at being compared to "them." And yet thgese people cannot be bothered to learn the difference between Muslems, or Hindu's; hey they're wearing a turban, they must be Arabs, of course they cant tell the difference between a Persian and an Arab or the animosity between the two.
The whole world is in black and white to them, they are blind to the shades of grey.
When angry, count four, when very angry, swear.
-Mark Twain-
The whole world is white and non-white to them. And non-white is the enemy...
[I may just have stuffed cotton for a brain, but even I know this is just wrong...]
Watch out for the next talking point;
"Al-Qaeda hates Sufis. Sufis are building a 'mosque' near Ground Zero. Therefore, the presence of a Sufi 'mosque' near Ground Zero will increase the likelihood that Al-Qaeda will attack Ground Zero again."
I was thinking the same thing...that is the next defense they will use.
We've come so far as a species yet invisible friends still effect our existence. C'est la vie :-/
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Well, my imaginary friend can beat up your imaginary friend - so there!
[I may just have stuffed cotton for a brain, but even I know this is just wrong...]
♥
Study the symptoms not the virus...
... but, I must say that a "friendly" predisposition is not a common trait shared among most of those invisible beings. Esp. the abrahamic god, who seems to be a monumental jealous half assed prick.
;-)
I am truly fascinated as to how humans as a species are willing to surrender all sort of control over entities of which existence there is absolutely not a single shred of evidence whatsoever. And that is not just with regards to religious/mass insanity issues, our entire economic system and by extension our actual existence is based and revolves around abstract concepts such as capital and invisible hands guiding markets.
You know we must be some alien grad student's thesis material...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
Nah, probably more like the ant colony in some alien grade school class. The grad students reserve their energy for creatures capable of complex and abstract thought.
In WWII, China was an ally but Japan was an enemy. Which is why "Mr. Moto" movies stopped, but "Charlie Chan" movies didn't. But ANY Asian-looking person in the states during WWII was looked on, not just with suspicion, but actual hatred.
Don't believe it? Find an Asian who was here at that time and ask them...
Let's face it - we never learn.
[I may just have stuffed cotton for a brain, but even I know this is just wrong...]
My grandmother would tell those stories, and both her sons were fighting in WWII (for the US - their birthplace). She was still afraid to have people find out in a strange place she was German.
Demonizing and dehumanizing the enemy are as old as war I think. The problem is that we have not defined the "enemy" well. I wonder how many (esp. right wing) really think we are "at war" with the whole religion of Islam? That is a scary thought. In addition to the obvious moral stupidity of that, I do not think we as a country want to declare ourselves at war with an estimated 23% of the world. (source Pew Research)
The twin towers were not attacked by 23% of the world. The "enemy" needs to be more properly defined here.
... because we're not at actual war.
Wars involve nations/states/regions, not "concepts."
BTW, the level of discrimination that German Americans and Asian Americans suffered are not really that comparable. Not a single person of German ancestry was locked in internment camps. There was a definitively racist element at work, which German Americans did not have to endure.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
the Germans did not look as obviously different, assuming they had little accent many like my Grandmother just tried to avoid notice. Yet, even she did have stories. There were regular rumors in her community that they would send the Germans to camps like the Japanese, each time creating panic.
Wars used to involve nation states, I really am not sure that organized regimented war between states is the future of hostilities anymore. Defining the "enemy" though I think in that case becomes more important I would think, not less. Declaring war on an idea is rather silly.
I wonder if a poll was taken how many Americans would answer if we are "at war" with:
- Islam
- Terrorists
- Terrorism
- Drugs (an oldy but the phrase was also used)
At least as many that think Obama is a secret muslim? More, less? As the society labels more and more things as wars it also gets less picky about defining the enemy in these wars.
The thing about those polls is that they assume the respondent knows what they are talking about. I would like to see a poll ask, "Is Obama a placebo-ist?"
Ha ha ha. Just put a bunch of scary words in the poll. Examples: philanthropist, podiatrist, anthropologist... Scare the crap out of them.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
It's more likely than you think! muhahaha.
Yes, the whole needing to assume the target of a US poll knows anything is becoming a problem.
I'm sure the right-wing still hates Asians.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
But, of course, we *do* need our shirts starched and a good carry-out dinner once in a while.
on the side of al Qaeda, yet again!
Still...
[I may just have stuffed cotton for a brain, but even I know this is just wrong...]
absolutely.
But, i'm under the impression there's fewer American-Taliban (right wing extremists) than they would have us all believe.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Sufi poets routinely extol the virtues of wine and song, both forbidden in the purer versions of Islam. Sufism has always believed in tolerance towards other people and religion, and in peace. You can see why al Qaeda views it as its mortal enemy. The more Muslims accept some version of Sufi Islam, the more dangerous for al Qaeda and its extreme jihadist philosophy.
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
omar khayyam was a brilliant man. he is responsible for great leaps in science. he was smarter than most of us could ever hope to be. too bad we have fucking idiots running the world today.
Sorry, but I don't give Bush much credit for coming around to the wisdom of being circumspect regarding the Muslim world. It's more likely that he was strongly advised that it's *really* not prudent for the President of the U.S. to cavalierly disrespect an entire faith shared by billions. Not if we want to keep doing business (oil, weapons, etc.) with them
I can't see the video so I have to respond directly to the article.
The tendency to describe all Sufis as inherently peaceful, the hippies of Islam or even as a distinct sect is not really accurate. Sufism is a philosophical approach emphasizing mystical experience in Islam, and the ends that they reach after taking the approach are very disparate. One does not identify themselves as just Sufi, in my experience, but almost always as Sunni or Shi'a (or whatever) and Sufi as well. Sufis are not a Shia Sub-sect, they are found in extremely plentiful supply in the Sunni world. It is also debatable where Sufism began, with some tracing it directly to right after Muhammad's time in Arabia, although I think the "influenced by Hinduism" theory has merit.
Sufis are everywhere but tend to be found in clumps throughout the Islamic world, as an example, Sunni Kurds in Iraq tend to be quite Sufi in practice, whereas Sunni Arabs there are considerably less so. Sufis organize themselves into "brotherhoods," which can be considered very rough analogs to monastic orders. Because they are distinguished by their approach to religion, they can be anywhere from genuine pacifists (The Muridiyya of Senegal are an example) to extreme reactionaries in practice. Most of them fall squarely into the mainstream of the Sunna, so they are not going out drinking all the time.
It is true that the Wahhabis consider Sufism to generally be a heretical innovation. However, this is not quite set in stone, it is somewhat peculiar to them, and other big Islamic fundamentalist movements (Wahhabi are not the only one by far), like Deobandism, which the Taliban suscribe to, are more open to Sufism. Indeed, Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, is or was a Naqshbandiyya Sufi and the Taliban tolerated Sufi orders to a large degree despite the Wahhabi influence they had, with just a couple of exceptions. Ayatollah Khomeini is also rumored to have been a Sufi.
So, yeah, Sufism is very interesting, but it is not anymore of a monolith than Islam itself. It is not inherently progressive or retrograde, though you can find within it some of the most liberal movements in Islam. It is best to judge these things on a case-by-case basis when possible. Our only real enemy in this world is ignorance, after all.
Even I was hoping it was a simple demarcation, but religion doesn't work that way, eh?
Thanks for this explanation. It's complicated enough that the press simply can't handle it and the masses will never learn. IMHO the fault for us Americans not knowing the details as posted at the top falls squarely on the press and US political leadership since 2003. In fact, I think it was in the Bush administration's best political interests to lump them all together in most cases. Seems true with today's conservatives in any case.
For those who may have missed it, WNYC radio had a callin for Tribeca residents only.
The link is: http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2010/aug/20/ope...
I found the following link commenting on N. Kristof's SUN column. It lists moderate Islamic replies to extremism:
http://bit.ly/dAj1xC
Thank you so much for linking to me! I've been linking to that post of mine all over the place myself (witness the comment on Kristof's blog) -- so few non-Muslim Americans appear to have any idea whatsoever that there are Muslims out there saying these things.
My two favorites are:
1) the Pakistani theologian, a highly respected figure all over the Muslim world, who issued a fatwa against terrorism earlier this year, saying "Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses of ifs and buts."
and 2) The 20 North American imams who issued a statement this past January, reading in part: "There is no conflict between the Islamic values of freedom and justice and the Canadian/US values of freedom and justice. Therefore, any attack on Canada and the United States is an attack on the freedom of Canadian and American Muslims. Any attack on Canada and the United States is an attack on thousands of mosques across North America. It is a duty of every Canadian and American Muslim to safeguard Canada and the USA."
If these a-holes would compare Islam to Christianity
they would see there are as many versions of one as the other. Christianity is so divided and with evangelicals popping
up all the time creating their own sects it only gets
less and less monolithic. Islam is also very divided
and not the huge scare these morans make it out to be.
Of course that would require some amount of thinking
and let's face it, that is not their strong point.
I look at that rabble and the day to day sh!t the
Repukes/reich wingers say everyday and I think I must
be an alien; I have so little in common with
these people.
and this is another example.
The real truth is that the Sunnis are on the side of the US, and the Shiites have been made our enemy, if the US has to kill a few Sunnis along the way so be it, but I contend that the real enemy in this battle is not religious, but political. The current wars are being fought between the liberal humanitarian vs. the fundamentalist conservative.
...was the "Final Word" where in Beirut a synagogue was just restored even with the (for lack of a better word) "blessing" from Hezbullah...
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