Notes on Salafi-jihadism

The Salafi groups—which experts say encompass some of the deadliest organizations today, including Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the violent splinter groups from the Muslim Brotherhood (al Ikhwan al Muslimun)—aim to re-create the perfection of the early Islamic period. Salafism is associated with the beliefs of Wahhabism (fundamentalism in Saudi Arabia) and fundamentalist interpretations of Islam throughout the Islamic world. Such groups advocate the use of violence and emphasize the smaller jihad against the nonbeliever over the more important and larger jihad within each individual. Salafism differs from Islamism in that it rejects any Western ideologies or constructs such as constitutions, political parties, and elections, which Islamists support (as long as Islamic parties benefit). - Mia Bloom, Bombshell

What is Salfism?
Salafis are fundamentalists who believe in a return to the original ways of Islam. The word 'Salafi' comes from the Arabic phrase, 'as-salaf as-saliheen', which refers to the first three generations of Muslims (starting with the Companions of the Prophet), otherwise known as the Pious Predecessors. - What is Salafism and should we be worried by it?

If the vast majority of non-Muslims find it difficult to strike the right chord between attacking Salafi-jihadists without being perceived as attacking Islam, the hurdles for the United States and its allies seem almost insurmountable. Therefore, a counter-terrorism approach that highlights the corruption of Salafi-jihadist ideology not on religious, but on secular grounds, is more likely to have the desired effect of weakening that ideology’s appeal.

Rather than highlighting the doctrinal and theological inconsistencies among Salafi-jihadists, the United States and its allies should grasp every opportunity to highlight the disastrous consequences that Salafi-jihadist violence has wrought on the everyday lives not only of Westerners, but first and foremost on Muslims themselves. It is a simple, though not sufficiently emphasized fact that the primary victims of Salafi-jihadists are Muslims, who are killed and maimed in far greater numbers than non-Muslims.

Salafi-jihadists openly justify the killing of civilians, including Muslims, under a logic of the ends justifying the means. It is equally a fact that leaders of Salafi-jihadist organizations hypocritically preach about the benefits of martyrdom, but rarely, if ever, conduct suicidal operations themselves, or send their loved ones on such missions. It is a fact that al-Qa`ida and associated groups offer no vision for Muslims other than perennial jihad—hardly an appealing prospect. - The Salafi Jihad as a Religious Ideology

Islamic State is an example of a Salafi-jihadist extremist group originally associated with al Qaeda that has brought Islamic fascism with a totalitarian spin on Sharia. Because of its extreme form of Salafi jihadism, most of the Muslim world has allied with the West to defend itself from this extremist group.

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References

Mia Bloom, Bombshell: the many faces of women terrorists, Viking Canada

Chris Hefelfinger, Radical Islam in America: Salifism's Journey from Arabia to the West

What is Salafism and should we be worried by it?: http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/6073/what-is-salafism-and-should-we-be-worried-by-it

Don't Fear Islamists; Fear Salafis: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/opinion/dont-fear-all-islamists-fear-salafis.html

The Salafi Jihad as a Religious Ideology: https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-salafi-jihad-as-a-religious-ideology

The Islamic State: Mapping Militant Organizations: http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/1

Like a Virgin (satire)

One popular white lie is to say you're still a virgin. Originally, the word "virgin" meant only "unmarried".

Today, its meaning refers to a person who is innocent of carnal knowledge, both of the heart and in the flesh. However, the original meaning still applies to all unmarried single people, as born-again virgins.

Yet the ideal of the virgin is to remain pure and innocent of carnal desire and all temptations of the flesh by dedicating yourself to a worthy cause, be it a religious theology or a political ideology or even a humanist philosophy.

This virginal ideal shall be accomplished by being of service to the cause of your choice, provided you remain free of desire and temptation, all for the common good of society.

By maintaining a chaste mindset, the dedicated virgin is able to sublimate desire into service for her chosen cause.

Since such a path is only an ideal, few of us are able to remain a virgin unless we are free of desire in the midst of the temptations of the modern world, be it television and other forms of technology.

Though a lesser man might succumb to carnal desires in the midst of temptation, the superior man has made the worthy cause noble.

Yet dedication to the noble cause requires the strength of will to purify the mind until it becomes virginal, and thus free of desire.

Desire thus is sublimated into unconditional love for humanity.

This may be sought through meditation and prayer, be it through yoga and/or other spiritual means. However, such dedication also requires each of us to reduce the use of alcohol, cigarettes, illegal drugs, and even meat, depending on the circumstances.

For the purpose of reducing consumption is to dedicate ourselves to the goal of the pure mind and the pure heart that remains free of desire.

Ultimately a person by sheer will and determination will become like a virgin, free of desire to consume and ready to act for the greater good.

Thus the ideal of the virgin is to free yourself from crass materialism, and consciously choose to be of service to the greater good in society.

Such service can be found through work, volunteerism and similar social activities.

Yet only a few people are dedicated to a noble cause.

Whatever path is chosen, the noble cause is each person's choice and requires a simple code of conduct: acceptance that whatever is asked of you, you do it as long as it harms no one.

Thus the ideal of the virgin is the path of innocence, free of the world yet being in service to the greater good of society.

Free of clinging to the world yet ready toserve for the good of us all, those of us dedicated to the noble cause shall realize that the white lie -"still a virgin" - is the metaphor for feeling like a virgin, untouched by desire and free of temptation.

The Syrian Crisis: Cutting Through the Propaganda (satire)

Image courtesy of Reuters

Robert Ford is why wannabe jihadis are flocking to Syria to fight against the corrupt regime of Bashir al Assad.

Thanks to strong propaganda against Syria, primarily due to its ties with North Korea, the US government has created the current crisis in that country.

Since Robert Stephen Ford is the mastermind of American sponsored terrorism in Syria, the blood is truly on the hands of American government.

However, Islam is not the enemy in Syria.

That would be the US-backed propagandists labeling Assad an evil tyrant in their mainstream media. His crime would be aligning with Iran and dealing with North Korea. Yet the majority of people suffering are Palestinians, displaced by the birth of Israel in 1947.

Hence, Syria's Arab Spring is but a continuation of the struggle between a people (the Palestinians) demonized by propaganda and a world misled into believing Israel is one of the good guys.

If you do not believe Israel is on our side, then you are an anti-Semite, even if your lack of trust in Israel is based on the cold facts that Israel acts like a client state of America and its imperialism in the Middle East.

Even America's invasion of Iraq is but a cold and calculated move for American dominance in the Middle East, or, so the propaganda goes.

However, both sides are in error since the endless war is never over, because the so-called oppressed nation of Israel will be exposed for crying wolf. Yet the sheeple will side with Israel because of right-wing propaganda painting all Muslims as caricatures of Islamic jihadism.

If you hate all Muslims then know that you have been duped by the mainstream media and your gut feeling has been manipulated by propaganda from CNN and FOX News. We all saw how well they tried to blame Amerithrax on Iraq when it's more likely that might have been an inside job.

Muslims who know the truth will laugh at this compliance with propaganda. Nobody who is Muslim in the Middle East and well educated believes al Qaeda and their ilk are Muslim. They know them to be criminals who will burn in hell for their crimes against humanity.

Once, right wing militants like the Muslim Brotherhood will cheer on those criminal terrorists who hide under the robes of a pious Muslim. Now, with the rise of the Islamic State in northern Iraq, all the Muslims have condemned them.

Those who condemn Syria should remember that Ambassador Robert Ford egged on the civilians of Syria to protest in a country where the Assad regime rules with an iron fist.

Given that the rebels did not sent their envoys to the failed peace talks in Geneva, that makes them look like they are only interested in an endless war controlled by ideology rather than by cold hard facts.

However, if you think Syrians are suffering, think again. These people in the picture are not Syrians. The smart ones with the means have already fled Syria, either fleeing to Turkey or to America. It is the unfortunate ones that end up anywhere else, including Jordan and Egypt.

For the people in the photograph are Palestinians, and they suffer due to ideology be it Shi'a or Sunni or even American foreign policy as expedited by Israel, often with prejudice favoring Jews over Arab.

Indeed, the enemy here is not Assad. It is those criminals behind al Qaeda and the Taleban, and especially the Islamic State. No Muslim in their right mind would support them. It is they who threaten, Syria and now Iraq, because their Sharia will ruin both Syria and Iraq were they to win. Any Muslim who supports the Islamic State is Muslim in name only. For the Qatari and Saudis who are behind them are crazy, crazy for oil money, and eager to pay for a holy war, contrary to Islam, all thanks to Big Oil.

Think about that the next time you line up for gas at the gas pumps: your driving privileges support terrorism. It also leads to endless war in the Middle East. So regarding any propaganda about Muslims that you hold, you've been lied to just to manipulate your fears by mainstream media.

If you really cared about the Middle East, then please sell your second car, which you don't really need. Its convenience is echoed in millions of other people with two vehicles actually fund unrest in the Middle East.

Yet, were I to tell this to people filling up their SUVs at the gas pumps, they would be angry due to their fear of losing status among their peers. It is such a waste of money but everyone is doing it, hoping that another recession controlled by powers-that-be won't cause them to lose their jobs.

For all these wars in the Middle East are the doing of elites around the world who want to make a profit from it. Who cares if you lose your jobs? Who cares if Palestinians suffer in Syria? They are also hoping you side with the thinly veiled propaganda designed to cause you to hate the Muslims.

Still, what good does this do except gain more subscribers for the propaganda machine called mainstream media? Indeed, the mainstream media sources are merely propaganda outlets for US foreign policy which has caused much of the civil unrest in the world today. By pushing democracy, America has only caused anarchy in the world.

In my opinion, Muslims were never our enemies. Islamic terrorists did not fly planes into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. That is only what the elites want you to believe. You have been lied to.

A jihadi is not Islamic -- he is an Islamist. The term "Islamic terrorist" is used for propaganda, and is only true within context of mainstream media. They are a corporate terrorist network that is nominally Islamic in that they take what is in the Quran and its hadiths only to utterly distort its true meaning.

I'm sure that people who believe otherwise think that what I am writing is propaganda. However, I am telling you truth based on what Muslims tell me. They were never the enemy. That has always been truth. I am just saddened that few people are willing to discover the truth about what Muslims think about those quasi-Muslim terrorists - the Islamists - that the mainstream media write about.

However, it's not up to me to change the minds of bigots. They would rather listen to the propaganda than work to open their minds to Truth.

It is Sayyid Qutb who is the father of Islamism. However, the acts of violent revolution are influenced by his words.

By "setting up the kingdom of God on earth, and eliminating the kingdom of man," Islamists think they are "taking power from the hands of its human usurpers and restoring it to God alone".

Instead, they are taking power into their own hands and forcing sharia in contravention to the Quran by limiting the choices of their Muslim subjects in the Islamic State to submit or die.

Thus, the Islamic State is merely continuing human usurpation and oppression of Muslims by Islamists who are political ideologists bent on total control and domination of the Ummah that they are purported of restoring power to God alone.

Since this has occurred in northern Iraq and eastern Syria, it is still a part of the Syrian crisis. That crisis has proven time and again of being orchestrated by American foreign policy in Syria, and funded by Qatari and Saudi sympathizers of the Syrian rebels.

For the almost-religious zeal of the American government to force democracy on the Middle East, especially Afghanistan, Iraq and even Syria will only lead to more anarchy in the Middle East.

Perhaps then, the Islamic State is only a symptom of that anarchy, which makes Islamism a Muslim answer to globalism. Might that mean jihadi is just another name for "freedom fighter" and the freedom that they are fighting for is the extreme of the right to freedom of religion?

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Originally posted March 2, 2014 at 10:48 AM
Update posted July 10, 2014 zy 1:29 AM

Reference:

A shocking image of Syria's brutal war - The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/28/shocking-image-syria-brutal-war-yarmouk

Who is Ambassador Robert Stephen Ford? The Architect of US Sponsored Terrorism in Syria:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-is-ambassador-robert-stephen-ford-the-architect-of-us-sponsored-terrorism-in-syria/5385973

Freedom for Girls Essential for Social Enlightenment

In order for human beings to become socio-culturally enlightened, human society must continue to give the option to women earlier in their life cycle to break from traditional patriarchal mores, so as to free them from their current social conditioning.

This is not an advocacy of matriachalism, as both patriarchalism and this latter ideology rely on dominant-submissive dichotomy which conditions their respective society.

Magical thinking and religion

One magical thinking myth about religion concerns the belief that praying a little harder will make a situation better. What more prayer does is relieve anxiety and other feelings when one is stressed. Yet prayer does not save a person from harm; that may be attributed to one's quick thinking.

Such magical thinking could be applied to recovery as well. When we think that going to meetings will stop us from alcohol or other drug use, that is a form of positive magical thinking. Its negative aspects may arise when we believe that if only a person remains clean and sober, then she will have wonderful friends to share with. This myth of recovery as a solution to life's problems is a form of magical thinking.

For recovery is a continuing process where you learn to stay clean and sober whilst facing the challenges of change and handling a crisis.

It is not religion that is the mental impairment; rather, it is the mind that practices magical thinking which is impaired. Yet spirituality is a continuing process of discovering the deeper understanding of God as I know him.

This deeper understanding of Him leads me to find solace in the Bible, in Buddhism, and in the works of other authors such as Rumi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and other writers.

To solely rely on the Bible or other religious texts is a conservative approach to religion. Yet I see no harm in religion so long as it does not endorse the use of violence or condone it.

Sometimes magical thinking even blinds doctors, lawyers and politicians.

Political ideologies include cronyism and other forms of political corruption.

A doctor who owns a successful chain of medical clinics also subscribes to the ideology that healthcare can be corporately managed to bring it to the masses.

Yet when it leads to long wait times to get that care, then such ideology may sometimes conflict with the doctor's obligation to do no harm.

As for lawyers, the ideology of taking advantage of the law for gain without consideration of the rights of justice is equally reprehensible. Yet sometimes such white collar crime goes on because any damage to the reputation of that lawyer leads to less business for him. This ideology involves placing gain and game above justice and respect for the law.

A scientist may believe in the Big Bang theory, despite the fact that it is a theory. Indeed, much of quantum mechanics is based on theory. The only people convinced that it has been proven might still be blinded by personal biases. As well, although I have a bias that endorses situational ethics, that bias influences me to view the Milgram experiment and the related Stanford prison experiment as validating my own ideology that each and every situation presents itself with ethical challenges.

Thus magical thinking is a condition of the human mind which involve an ideology, be it religious, political or scientific. It can be used to delude a person about how life really works. However, magical thinking also can be used creatively to see the whole picture about life.

Religion may be an opium of the people. When practiced mindfully it could open one's eyes to reality as it is.

As well, whether or not God exists is a either-or fallacy. Faith in him and belief that Christ died for my sins is a personal form of magical thinking which does comfort me.

This is because for me, its deep spiritual meaning cannot be described. I also get the same experience when reading Rumi and from the Buddhist sutras. This cannot be solely magical thinking at work. Indeed, I'm pretty sure that it is a form of self-hypnosis and may be related to the placebo effect as well.