Random Thoughts ... on Islam, Holy Wars and Homo sapiens
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In 1998, Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa,
declaring a jihad against the West,
in particular, the U.S.A.

To be blind
    to the cause
Is to be blind
    to the solution

So, we wonder why?

When the ground war [ against Iraq] started, it was said (by some):
"U.S. commanders behaved in a bizarre and inhuman manner that made Hitler’s SS units look like Mother Theresa. Despite the claims of the U.S. government/media, thousands of Iraqi soldiers and POWs were murdered in cold blood after they had surrendered."
In testimony before the European Parliament, a serviceman described one of these massacres: "Hundreds, possibly thousands of Iraqi soldiers began walking toward the U.S. position unarmed, with their arms raised in an attempt to surrender…at that point everybody in the unit began shooting. Quite simply, it was a slaughter."

Then, the US/UK led sanctions against Iraq have (apparently) resulted in a half million children ... dead.

In 1996, when former American secretary of state Madeleine Albright was asked on 60 minutes if she thought the death of half a million children was a price worth paying she replied: "This is a very hard choice but the price, we think, is worth it."

A variety of United Nations resolutions have established the groundwork for a separate Palestinian state. All have been ignored ... and 25% (or more) of U.S. foreign aid goes to Israel, much of it to support its war against the Palestinians.
See military aid, Washington report and other notes.

Denis Halliday, a 34-year veteran of United Nations, said (after resigning his post as UN administrator for the 'Oil for Food' program, in 1998):

"'The conditions in Iraq are appalling. Malnutrition is running at about 30% for children under 5 years old. This is directly attributable to the impact of sanctions, which have caused the breakdown of the clean water system, health facilities and all the things that young children require. It's incompatible with the UN Charter, with the Convention on Human Rights, with the Convention on the Rights of the Child ..."

For ten years the U.S supported the Freedom Fighters of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union then, when the Soviets withdrew, so did the U.S. ... leaving the Afghans to starve. Later, did these Freedom Fighters really become terrorists and Muslim extremists?
Ignoring the consequences of a successful conflict isn't something new!
That's what happened after the first Gulf War when the coalition forces withdrew and there was a bloody suppression of Iraq’s Shia majority.

The U.S stations thousands of troops in the Middle East.
U.S. warships patrol the waters of the Gulf States.
U.S fighter jets fly over Muslim Holy Lands.
Anti-American sentiment is growing in the Middle east. Many Muslims see American arrogance everywhere.

But this is not new:
In 1998, Osama bin Laden et al announced:

"... the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors ... ... Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people ... huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million ... in compliance with God's order, we issue the following fatwa ... kill the Americans and their allies "

There is little point in arguing that the U.S has provided immense aid to the Muslims of the Middle East.
There is little point in arguing that the U.S has protected countries of the Middle East from aggression.
There is little point in arguing that the U.S is motivated by Christian ideals.
There is little point in arguing who is responsible for this attitude toward the U.S.

... BUT, can we still wonder why?

What kind of war is this?
A war against whom?
How long will it last?
When do we know when it's over?

Governments have been fighting a war against crime for a thousand years.
No one asks:
How can we fight such a war when we don't know, in advance, the criminals?

No one asks:
When will such a war end?

It is pointless to ask these same questions with respect to a war against terrorism.
It will go on ... and on.
The best we can hope for is to reduce the incidence of terrorist acts to manageable levels,
... with all countries involved (as they are with the war against crime and drugs).

What is Islam?
Who are the Muslims?
Is jihad a Holy War?

The word Islam means peace and submission to Allah, and its history begins 1500 years ago, with its prophet Muhammad. Within a hundred years began the first "Holy War": Christians versus Muslims ... the Crusades. It lasted for two hundred years.

One in every five people on this small planet is Muslim.

The scripture of Islam has several translations: the Qur'an (or Koran) allows the use of force only in situations of self-defense and not against non-combatants such as civilians or children.

Try as I may, I cannot find any translation which suggests that Muslims should, at the urging of Allah, kill infidels / nonbelievers ... except in war, after which Islam asks that you treat them with generosity: See Qur'an 47:4

Originally (I understand), the word jihad normally meant a personal, religious holy struggle to improve oneself in the way of Allah and self defense against oppressors. Unfortunately it has come to mean a Holy War, an interpretation foreign to the Qur'an.

However, radical/fundamentalist/extremist Muslim clerics have managed to interpret the scriptures to justify a Holy War against the West ... hence the 1998 Osama bin Laden fatwa.

Will we eventually recognize the rights of Muslims to live and worship, in peace, as Muhammad decreed?
Will conflict due to ethnic and religious differences eventually come to an end?
Will the peoples of the world eventually regard themselves as a global family?
Will the primitive and barbaric nature of homo sapiens eventually fade ... and an enlightened world ensue?

I hope so.

There is an excellent database on Islam and the Qur'an,
compliments of the University of Southern California ( USC).  
There are three translations.

I've selected just a few topics:

  a Lord's Lament  
He was to be My finest create,
A million years to evolve.
A million years to banish the hate,
The arrogance to resolve.

To embrace the world that gives him life.
To love the creatures therein.
To nurture the Earth, arrest its strife.
To tame the land, abolish sin.

Yet his past was dark with angry ways
That he may look and learn and change.
To see the best, one must know the worst
So the anger and hate were there at first
            that he might find the seemly path.

I gave him life, the strength to choose,
His destiny within his grasp.
As time progressed he shunned the best
And in My name he failed the test
            and turned his friend to foe.

He forged a world to suit his need.
He ravaged land and sea.
He failed to find the seemly path
He earned the Earth's befitting wrath
            yet Nature did not stay his course.

Quake and storm revealed My rage,
And pestilence My ire.
Yet he raped the Earth, the sea and sand
And coveted his neighbour's land
            and sought to subjugate.

I forge a world of contrast,
That the best would come to be.
Yet he despises those of different past,
Their good he fails to see.

A million years and yet his state
Is not what I intended.
I am not certain what his fate
Or how it should be ended
... but I'll think of something!