Leigh in Azerbaijan

Sharing thinking from Dr David Kilcullen, an Aussie advising the current and previous military campaign in Iraq, despite having advised the Bush regime not to invade Iraq.  Here’s excerpts from his book, Accidental Guerilla.

As soon as you use “jihadi, mujhadeen, salafi” it gives the insurgents credibility as holy warriors.

Al-Qaeda and Taliban actions are justified by three propisitions:

1.  Religion.  The Koran talks about a defensive jihad where it is an obligation to fight an invader.

2. Political interpretation: Some posit that Western encroachment constitutes an attack on the identity of Islam and therefore justifies jihad.

3. Military interpretations: Because the US forces are so large it is legitimate to fight with terrorism.

However not all Muslims agree with all three justifications, only fundamentalists, who view fellow disagreeing Muslims as infidels and deserving of death. In Afganistan and elsewhere others refer to Taliban as ‘takfeery’  – which is similar to “heretics” http://moourl.com/l9sim