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Last update - 11:22 29/02/2008
Islam will win
By Bradley Burston
Tags: Islam, Terrorism, Al-Qaida

In Iraq, in Iran, within the Palestinian community and around the world, jihadists are being reassessed for their excesses, for the direct and tragic harm suicide terrorism has caused Islam, Islamic shrines and noncombatants of all faiths

An ill wind is blowing for jihadists. It is the wind of reason. It is the wind of human conscience. It is the wind of true Islam. And it is bad news for the terrorists.

On Wednesday, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appeared in a videotape vowing revenge for the U.S. killing of a top Al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan. It was not the killing per se which augered poorly for jihadists, but the specific language of al-Zawahiri's threats. Seated next to an assault rifle and backed by a library full of Islamic books, al-Zawahiri chose to speak to a growing chorus of Muslim clerics who have openly criticized jihadists as acting contrary to the teachings of Islam.
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"So seek help, O Americans and agents of Americans, from those seeking a way out," he intoned, referring to the anti-jihadist clergy. "They will be of no help to you."

As Iran prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary next year of the revolution led by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the world of jihad is fraying at many points and, in the worst symptom of any revolution, beginning to show its age.

The same day the Al-Qaida video appeared, senior Iranian cleric Hassan Rowhani strongly criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his verbal assaults against Israel, asking: "Does foreign policy mean expressing coarse slogans and grandstanding?"

The day before, an exhaustive Gallup poll of the world's Muslims showed that 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates, and only seven percent are political radicals who condone the September 11 attacks and other subsequent terrorist operations.

And the day before that, the Darul-Uloom Deoband Muslim seminary in India, seen as the most influential school for Islamic law in Asia, condemned terrorism as violating the teachings of Islam. Seminary head Maulana Marghoobur Rahman denounced terrorism as completely wrong and contrary to Islam's concept of peace. He was addressing a landmark conference on terrorism that was expected to explicitly ask the Muslim community to stay away from acts of terrorism and from organizations that promote violence in the name of religion.

From the dawn of this decade of terrorism, there has been a widely held belief that no matter how the West chose to combat armed Islamists, the extremists would only benefit.

Appease them, the reasoning went, and they will take advantage of any and all largess to expand their activities, exploiting a cocktail of democratic freedoms, Western post-imperial guilt and First World technology in order to further their aims, spread their message and kill again and again.

Make war on them, on the other hand, and you again play into their hands, as the ideology of martyrdom neutralizes all conventional notions of deterrence, numerical and material superiority, and even the very idea of victory.

You can't touch them, the theory held. Success makes them stronger. Pain and despair fuel their struggle. Fanaticism armors their faith. They can outlast you, they will out-populate you, they revel in your pursuit of comforts. They are hard-muscled where you are malleable, motivated where you are resigned, they cannot be bought off, they will stop at nothing and, for dessert, you pay their way every time you stop at the gasoline pump. Or so the theory went.

Maybe the theory was wrong.

If recent indications are any measure, we may be seeing a turning point in the fortunes of radical Islamist clergy-warlords and terrorist groups who cite Islam as their inspiration.

In Iraq, in Iran, within the Palestinian community and around the world, jihadists are being reassessed for their excesses, for the direct and tragic harm suicide terrorism has caused Islam, Islamic shrines and noncombatants of all faiths.

Where Islamists have succeeded in taking control of governments in the cases of the former Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and a confused, directionless Gaza - radicals have shown that they know how to topple governments, but have little clue how to run them.

If recent indications hold, Islamist terrorism as an ideological brushfire is dimming in its ability to galvanize and electrify.

If recent indications hold, Islam itself will be the winner
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  1.   LETS BLAME IT ALL TO MUSLIMS AND SIT TIGHT 12:09  |  indrajaya 29/02/08
  2.   MR. BURSTON ! WHO ARE YOU ? A SECRET MUSLIM ? A JEW ? A CHRISTIAN 12:33  |  ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU 29/02/08
  3.   life is dirty and short Mr. Burston. Islam is forever 13:01  |  be Muslim Sir 29/02/08
  4.   HAARETZ`S HEARTS MUCH CLOSE TO ISLAM THAN TODAYS JUDAISM 13:03  |  I FEEL IT 29/02/08
  5.   Why leave your own Zionists & Imperialists off the list? 13:32  |  Dutch 29/02/08
  6.   RADICALS OBEY THE KORAN AND HADITH ?? 13:39  |  Bill 29/02/08
  7.   Silly me, and I thought that jihad was an Islamic concept. 13:42  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 29/02/08
  8.   ISLAM WILL LOSE ?? 13:51  |  Bill 29/02/08
  9.   Bill # 6 14:35  |  Mohamed 29/02/08
  10.   to #6 Bill, I wonder what you benefit of repeating your lies 14:42  |  Zaki 29/02/08
  11.   Do the maths 15:09  |  Joe Shmo 29/02/08
  12.   "Radical Islam the Problem Moderate Islam the Solution" 15:12  |  Jane 29/02/08
  13.   I Think I Am A Jew, A Christian, A Buddhist, And A Muslim... 15:14  |  Yosemite 29/02/08
  14.   Burston,weak article,make a distinction between terrorism,state 16:00  |  lakshmi 29/02/08
  15.   Slowman, I am instructing you to stop working NOW! 16:01  |  Dr. Anshel Pepper 29/02/08
  16.   Islamic moderates are an endangered species 16:04  |  Jason 29/02/08
  17.   #5 doris cadigan and more convenient history 16:06  |  v hardman 29/02/08
  18.   Going deeper on the statistics... 16:17  |  Luis 29/02/08
  19.   Hey, Bill... 16:21  |  Boris S. 29/02/08
  20.   To Dutch 16:35  |  Armenian Genocide 29/02/08
  21.   going deeper on the statistics... 16:40  |  Luis 29/02/08
  22.   ATILLA on Bradley Burston 16:42  |  Mark B. 29/02/08
  23.   Bill - 6: they do not OBEY the KORAN... 16:55  |  Nihat 29/02/08
  24.   How Would a Jew Know What True Islam Is? 17:04  |  massaraksh 29/02/08
  25.   Mladen: You Should Read More Burston, Then You`d Know Everything! 17:08  |  massaraksh 29/02/08
  26.   Jason: Islamic Moderates Are Non-Existent Species 17:10  |  massaraksh 29/02/08
  27.   Bradley follows the Bush confusion 17:26  |  Tosefta 29/02/08
  28.   Mr.Burston *** A New Dawn Perhaps? 17:32  |  JOSH 29/02/08
  29.   If the number of todays Qassams rised Bradley is right! 17:36  |  Karl 29/02/08
  30.   The paranoid fantasies of those who scare themselves 17:41  |  Mark Lincoln 29/02/08
  31.   Who is the Abominable Slowman? 18:04  |  Bursting Bradley 29/02/08
  32.   Islamic strategy 18:40  |  Jean Van Daem 29/02/08
  33.   # 10 Tosefta...Turkish scholars are devoting 18:55  |  Lynn 29/02/08
  34.   To Mark London: How about if you look at some statistics? 19:08  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 29/02/08
  35.   #13, Mark Lincoln 19:10  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 29/02/08
  36.   30 years after Russian revolution was 1947 19:20  |  hardly the end 29/02/08
  37.   #11, JOSH 20:02  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 29/02/08
  38.   Confused Bush, the creator of the Jihadist scare 20:57  |  Tosefta 29/02/08
  39.   #13 BORIS S 21:12  |  Bill 29/02/08
  40.   # 30 Cipora..Well we can only hope.But! I`ll believe it when.. 21:26  |  JOSH 29/02/08
  41.   # 16 NIHAT 21:31  |  Bill 29/02/08
  42.   Mark Lincoln RE Israeli paranoia... 21:34  |  Dutch 29/02/08
  43.   # 26 Jean Van Daem.. Islamic strategy..But A Question 21:37  |  JOSH 29/02/08
  44.   Changes (Lynn #27) 21:44  |  Tosefta 29/02/08
  45.   I have a question 21:53  |  TAZ 29/02/08
  46.   But they don`t agree that terror is "terror" 22:24  |  McQueen 29/02/08
  47.   @ 8 Yeah Bradley, you are so wrong not having put Hamas in the 22:46  |  Karl 29/02/08
  48.   Moderates are product of Islam vagueness 22:53  |  Moises 29/02/08
  49.   Only 7% 23:11  |  dave 29/02/08
  50.   Darul-Uloom Deoband Muslim seminary in India 23:51  |  Karl 29/02/08
  51.   hOW FUNNY, un COMISSIONER JUST APPROVED palestinian terrorism 00:22  |  Massoud Levy 01/03/08
  52.   Mladen Andrijasevic - a few statistics 01:02  |  Mark Lincoln 01/03/08
  53.   Zionism is wrapping itself in barbed wire! 01:06  |  Maureen Ann 01/03/08
  54.   Cipora - You clearly don`t understand reality 01:10  |  Mark Lincoln 01/03/08
  55.   Lakshmi # 8 01:22  |  Avrum 01/03/08
  56.   ISLAM will WIN 01:29  |  Hasan 01/03/08
  57.   Gospozha Kohn 01:31  |  Mark Lincoln 01/03/08
  58.   Do the numbers 01:36  |  Mark Lincoln 01/03/08
  59.   #41, Mark Lincoln 01:42  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 01/03/08
  60.   BRADLEY BURSTON = LATE ROBERT GUEYE OF COTE D`IVOIRE 01:58  |  Mohamed Malleck 01/03/08
  61.   Publish this in US 02:01  |  W 01/03/08
  62.   #45, Mark Lincoln 02:06  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 01/03/08
  63.   #38 02:28  |  Michael Martin-Smith 01/03/08
  64.   Cipora - really? 02:34  |  Mark Lincoln 01/03/08
  65.   Cipora - Vietnam and Afghanistan 02:40  |  Mark Lincoln 01/03/08
  66.   Mr. Burston has it right 02:53  |  Mark Lincoln 01/03/08
  67.   #55, Mark, you must be joking 03:36  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 01/03/08
  68.   The wind of true Islam.... 04:18  |  Webster 01/03/08
  69.   indrajaya # 1 05:06  |  Mark 01/03/08
  70.   Cipora - not that way at all 05:26  |  Mark Lincoln 01/03/08
  71.   The nature of power 05:33  |  Mark Lincoln