Jihadi cults.

Submitted by Robert M. Armstrong (United States), Jul 26, 2004 at 17:12

One problem is the enemy uses a religion as its ideology. This makes it difficult to fight the enemy without at least appearing to attack the entire religion. Furthermore the enemy can convince other members of the faith any attack on it is an attack on the entire religion. Liberal democracies at the beginning of the 21st century just do not fight religious wars. To even imply we must do so is considered a sign of bigotry. In a society in which bigotry is the greatest of all evils this is simply unacceptable.

In order to avoid the implication we are fighting a religion I propose we call the enemy organizations Jihadi cults. A Jihadi cult is a political conspiracy. Its goal is a position of political power for its leadership. Its followers are simply means to this end. It uses the religion of Islam to insure the loyality of the followers to the leadership and the leadership's political goals. Jihadi cults are cults. They do not represent the entire religion of Islam. We are fighting the cults, not the religion.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".