Posted on 03/17/2014 5:23:07 AM PDT by SJackson
- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com -
A CIA Chief’s Willful Blindness on Jihad
Posted By Raymond Ibrahim On March 17, 2014 @ 12:34 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments
CIA director John Brennan is at it againequivocating over the nature of jihad by evoking paradigms familiar to the West.
Last Tuesday, during an event at the Council of Foreign Relations, Brennan was asked about the war of ideas surrounding Islam, which the questioner said many Americans tend to equate with violence.
The CIA chief responded by saying that al-Qaedas ideology is a perverse and very corrupt interpretation of the Quran; that al-Qaeda has hijacked Islam; that they have really distorted the teachings of Muhammad.
Even so, that ideology, that agenda of al-Qaeda, confirmed Brennan, has gained resonance and following in many parts of the world.
So what is the CIA chiefs explanation as to why such a perverse and very corrupt understanding of Islamone that has distorted the teachings of Muhammad resonates among Muslims?
He gives noneother than to say that this ideology is fed a lot of times by, you know, political repression, by economic, you know, disenfranchisement, by, you know, lack of education and ignorance, so therethere are a number of phenomena right now that I think are fueling the fires of, you know, this ideology.
Interestingly, if you watch the video clip of Brennan talking, you will note that he only you knows in the above quotation (four times) and right before it, when he says that al-Qaeda has distorted the teachings of Muhammad, you know, for violent purposes.
The rest of his talk is relatively smooth.
Could Brennan be self-conscious of his own equivocationshence all these stilted you knows in one sentence?
Could he be aware of the Rand Corporation report on counterterrorism, prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2009? It found that Terrorists are not particularly impoverished, uneducated, or afflicted by mental disease. Demographically, their most important characteristic is normalcy (within their environment). Terrorist leaders actually tend to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.
At any rate, this is all déjà vu. Back in May 2010, I closely examined Brennans apologetics on jihad in an article that, in light of these recent remarks of his, is just as applicable today as it was nearly four years ago. It follows:
Obamas Top Counterterror Advisers Inability to Think Outside the Box Bodes Disaster
The greatest hurdle Americans need to get over in order to properly respond to the growing threat of radical Islam is purely intellectual in nature; specifically, it is epistemological, and revolves around the abstract realm of knowledge. Before attempting to formulate a long-term strategy to counter radical Islam, Americans must first and foremost understand Islam, particularly its laws and doctrines, the same way Muslims understand itwithout giving it undue Western (liberal) interpretations. This is apparently not as simple as expected: all peoples of whatever civilizations and religions tend to assume that other peoples more or less share in their worldview, which they assume is objective, including notions of right and wrong, good and bad. . [T]he secular, Western experience has been such that people respond with violence primarily when they feel they are politically, economically, or socially oppressed. While true that many non-Western peoples may fit into this paradigm, the fact is, the ideologies of radical Islam have the intrinsic capacity to prompt Muslims to violence and intolerance vis-à-vis the other, irrespective of grievances . Being able to understand all this, being able to appreciate it without any conceptual or intellectual constraints is paramount for Americans to truly understand the nature of the enemy and his ultimate goals.
Such were the words that opened my testimony to Congress. One year later, none other than President Obamas top counter-terror adviser, John Brennan, has come to personify the approach I warned against, that is, the misguided phenomenon of westernizing Islamic concepts.
A Fox News report, titled Counterterror Adviser Defends Jihad as Legitimate Tenet of Islam, has the details:
During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Brennan described violent extremists as victims of political, economic and social forces, but said that those plotting attacks on the United States should not be described in religious terms.
In other words, despite the fact that Islamists describe all their goals in religious terms, Brennan sees them as naught more than victims of the system. And why is that? Because Brennan believes that political, economic and social forcesthe three I specifically stressed in my excerpt aboveare the only precipitators to violence. So jihadis can openly articulate their violent bloodlust through religious terms all they want, it matters not: Brennan and his ilk have their intellectual blinders shut tight and refuse to venture outside the box.
Next, our counter-terror adviser evokes the perverse logic behind the administrations recent decision to censor words offensive to Muslims (which I closely explored here):
Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists or Islamists because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or ones community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children.
Inasmuch as he is correct in the first clause of that sentencejihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or ones communityhe greatly errs in the latter clause, by projecting his own notions of what constitutes holy, legitimate, and innocent onto Islam. In Islam, such terms are often antithetical to the Judeo-Christian/Western understanding. Indeed, the institution of jihad, according to every authoritative Islamic book on jurisprudence, is nothing less than offensive warfare to spread Sharia, a cause seen as both legitimate and holy in Islam. Jihadis regularly seek to purify themselves and their communities by purging them of infidels and their influences. As for innocence, by simply being a non-Muslim infidel, one is already guilty in Islam. Brennan understands the definition of jihad; he just has no clue of its application. So he is left fumbling about with a square peg that simply refuses to pass through a round hole.
Fox News continues:
Brennan defined the enemy as members of bin Ladens Al Qaeda network and its terrorist affiliates. But Brennan argued that it would be counterproductive for the United States to use the term, as it would play into the false perception that the murderers leading war against the West are doing so in the name of a holy cause.
Fine, do define the enemy as members of bin Ladens Al Qaeda network and its terrorist affiliates, but do also define the cause that binds these terrorist affiliates together in the first place. Of course, one need only read their writings to know that they adhere to one and the same cause: the establishment of a hegemonic caliphate that governs the world according to Sharia. As for Brennan calling the terrorist affiliates murderers, would he also be willing to apply that epithet to their prophet Muhammad, who was wont to send assassins to, well, murder his critics, including poets and one old woman whose body was dismembered by her Muslim assailantsassailants who were no less convinced that they were involved in a holy cause than were the 9/11 hijackers?
It should be further noted that this tendency to project ones own cultural norms and priorities onto others is the height of arrogance and ethnocentrismprecisely what liberals constantly warn against. Yet the irony is that open-minded proponents of cultural relativism are also the ones most prone to westernizing Islam. When Brennan insists that jihadis are really not motivated by religion but rather are products of political, economic and social forces, is this total dismissal of the other and his peculiar motivations (in favor of Western paradigms) not the epitome of cultural arrogance?
Would it be “blindness” if he was one of them?
“I hate it when people continue to assign ignorance to Obummer and his Islamic administration. By the way, has it been conclusively established that Brennan is a Muslim convert?”
SPOT ON. I am sick to death also hearing folks say ozippy, Brennan, et al didn’t know........ AAAAAAAAAAAACH. They know EXACTLY what they’re doing! Muzzies lie, are taught to lie and DO lie at all turns.
The FECKLESS GOP is disgusting from top to bottom to allow this to continue without impeachment charges to be brought up. Val Jarrett is running this country. Think I’m wrong? Check her muzzie ties. Same thing for Huma (Mrs. Weiner)of Hillary fame. Do you know HER muzzie ties. If not, you are uninformed.
Please call again and again to your rep, senator, etc. Silence is acceptance.
Mr. Brennan epitomizes the enemy within.
Saved for later read.
“The Taliban is in the Building”....said by Eric Nordstrom.
Brennan flipped to Muslim in the 70’s when he was CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia.
Brennan flipped to Muslim in the 70s when he was CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia.”
And why did congress approve this appointment with no mention of his Muslim leanings? Same reason congress is allowing Muslims to be placed in every department, every place O needs them. The gubmet is packed with them. This is frightening, IMHO.
Keep making a fuss. And oh yes..... the military should NOT be used for O’s social experimenmt, including muzzie
Ok.... need another cup of coffee. Sorry for the spelling error. You get my drift.
thanks FReepers
Why do more ‘men’ convert than women? Because the men see it as having slaves, getting little girls to rape and killing without consequence?
What the hell would a woman get out of anything islam?
Nice to see Islams useful idiot Brennan getting roughed up. Below is a quote from the author. I Have always said the problem with understanding Islam is most people think it is like the religion they believe in. It is not. Tom
Americans must first and foremost understand Islam, particularly its laws and doctrines, the same way Muslims understand itwithout giving it undue Western (liberal) interpretations. This is apparently not as simple as expected: all peoples of whatever civilizations and religions tend to assume that other peoples more or less share in their worldview, which they assume is objective, including notions of right and wrong, good and bad.
The above is so obvious... it's the same with communist community leaders, liberal elites who were 'born on third and think they hit a triple', and most other forms of radicals. Loser elites looking for adventure and power... without having to do what 'daddy' did - by working for it. Arabs are no exception - just more violent.
I can't imagine. Let me put on my thinking cap...
Oh I know. They do charitable work. They help the children. They wear a hat celebrating the slaughter of Jews...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dBAETWmnGg
thanks... never saw that clip before.
What the GOP is allowing to happen in DC is corruption, perhaps they’re in up to their eyebrows.
Still sickening, IMHO.
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