Religion of Peace Update

Is there any hope for Islam? Tomorrow’s Washington Post headlines: “Scholars Urge Jihad In Event of Iraq War”:
“Islamic scholars at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the preeminent seat of Sunni Muslim learning in the Arab world, have declared a U.S. attack on Iraq would threaten all Arabs and Muslims and urged a jihad to defend their interests….’According to Islamic law, if the enemy steps on Muslims’ land, jihad becomes a duty on every male and female Muslim,’ said the statement.”
The “scholars” of Al-Azhar University are “seen as a beacon by many orthodox Sunni Muslims,” according to the Post. Of course, as we all know, “jihad” is a flexible term roughly corresponding to “self-improvement” in the Western lexicon. Thus one might go on a “jihad” against, say, high cholesterol. So the call for “jihad,” the Post helpfully explains, “was not necessarily advocating violence.”
Tomorrow’s Post also reports on the hot #1 single in the Arab world: “The Attack on Iraq.” The song goes: “”Chechnya! Afghanistan! Palestine! Southern Lebanon! The Golan Heights! And now Iraq, too? And now Iraq, too? It’s too much for people. Shame on you! Enough, enough, enough!”
“The Attack on Iraq” is sung by an Egyptian named Shaaban Abdel-Rahim. He became famous in 2001 with his hit tune, “I Hate Israel.”
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that for Muslims, it is perfectly fine to amputate ears, gouge out eyes, extract tongues, rape the wives and daughters of those who advocate freedom, and otherwise terrorize the population out of the basest motives, as long as the ones doing the amputating, gouging, extracting, raping and terrorizing are themselves Muslims. A strange and troubling religion.

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