Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Defining the Enemy

from the comments at The Reaction -- by Michael J.W. Stickings: Unrealism in the White House:

". . .The followers of Osama bin Laden were indoctrinated in accordance with Wahhabism. Many of Westerners, especially in the USA, don’t have the slightest idea about the differences within the Muslim world of their many different sects, as we have in our own Western world many religious differences amongst Christians. Who are they: For more than two centuries, Wahhabism has been Saudi Arabia's dominant faith. It is an austere form of Islam that insists on a literal interpretation of the Koran. Strict Wahhabis believe that all those who don't practice their form of Islam are heathens and enemies, including other Sunnis Muslims and Shiite Muslims. Critics say that Wahhabism's rigidity has led it to misinterpret and distort Islam, pointing to extremists such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Wahhabism's explosive growth began in the 1970s when Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools (madrassas) and mosques from Islamabad to Europe and the USA. Basically they denied what originally the Koran admitted, the very existence of other monotheistic faiths, basically Jews and Christians, which were in some way acceptable, considering their common roots in One God and the Patriarch Abraham worshiped by Mahomet’s followers. . ."

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