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"Islam has a tradition of vigorous interpretation and adjustment, called ijtihad, but Koranic interpretation remains frozen in the model of classical commentaries written nearly two centuries after the prophet's death. The history of the rise and fall of great powers over the last 3,000 years underscores that only when people are able to debate issues freely - when religious taboos fade - can intellectual inquiry lead to scientific discovery, economic revolution and powerful new civilizations."

So says the NY Times' Nicholas Kristoff (August 4, Martyrs, Virgins and Grapes). But if this is true, how then can we interpret the aggressive pretensions to world dominance of the religion-inspired Luddism we know as fanatical Islam?

It would be foolhardy to dismiss Islamic militancy as a non-threat. History is replete with instances of reactionary forces succeeding in power struggles. Such success is more intelligible within the framework of the observation of French writer Victor Hugo that "Power is often no more than a faction ...(and) (f)actions are blind men with a true aim."

This view can be rationalised within Kristoff's supposition. Hatred-based Islamist ideas, like the "love of death" and martyrdom propounded by Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Masri in a Friday sermon at Finsbury Park Mosque in London provide true aim to the blind man striving for power. But such ideas are, beyond that, not worthy of advancing civilisation or of providing the basis for a powerful new one.


*****


In fighting against the threat posed by Islamism, Middle East Forum's Daniel Pipes points out (The Triumph Of the 9/11 Commission) that one important aspect of the recent 9/11 Commission final report which passed, by and large, under the mainstream media radar was that it specifically identified Islamist terrorism as the 'catastrophic threat' facing America.

"... (T)he commission has called the enemy 'by its true name, something that politically correct Americans have trouble facing.

"The Islamist outlook represents not a hijacking of Islam, as is often but wrongly claimed; rather it emerges from a 'long tradition of extreme intolerance' within Islam, one going back centuries and in recent times associated with Wahhabism, the Muslim Brethren, and the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb.
"The commission then does something almost unheard of in American government circles: It offers a goal for the war now under way, namely the isolation or destruction of Islamism.carefully distinguishes between the enemy's twofold nature: 'al Qaeda, a stateless network of terrorists' and the 'radical ideological movement in the Islamic world.' In other words, 'the United States has to help defeat an ideology, not just a group of people.'"

As if to illustrate just how widespread radicalism is within Islam, Pipes provides in another recent article the example of American Muslim Conference founder and long-time chief, Abdurahman Alamoudi, a "Washington fixture" of an organisation described by Catholic bishops as "the premier, mainstream Muslim group in Washington." The Washington Post described Alamoudi as "a pillar of the local Muslim community."

Pipes says Alamoudi:

" ... had many meetings with both Clintons in the White House and once joined George W. Bush at a prayer service dedicated to victims of the 9/11 attacks. Alamoudi arranged a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner for congressional leaders. He six times lectured abroad for the State Department and founded an organization to provide Muslim chaplains for the Department of Defense. One of his former AMC employees, Faisal Gill, serves as policy director at the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence division.

"But the one-time high-flyer last week signed a plea agreement with the American government admitting his multiple crimes in return for a reduced sentence."

Of note in the sentencing are illegal financial transactions suspected of being connected with laundering money in support of terrorism, "his affiliation with a Specially Designated Terrorist (the Hamas leader, Mousa Abu Marzook), and his membership in terrorist-related organizations."

Alamoudi admitted that he "was summoned by Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi to two meetings and as a result of these Alamoudi helped organize the assassination of Saudi crown prince Abdullah. (The plot was foiled.)

"Alamoudi's Palm Pilot, seized at the time of his arrest, contained contact information for seven men designated as global terrorists by U.S. authorities; Alamoudi has at least indirect links to Osama bin Laden through the Taibah International Aid Association, an American non-profit where he served along with Abdullah A. bin Laden, Osama's nephew..."