Things to Ponder: "What do jihadists want?"

Interesting paragraph from Dr. Walid Phares in his book The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy;

Salafists, Wahabis, Takfiris, Tblighis and other Sunni Islamists reject the concept of pluralism and radically oppose the rule of the people. Only Allah and his teachings, they postulate, are the basis for governance. The Shia-born Khumeinists condemn Western-style liberalism but co-opt concepts and words from international democratic institutions such as the idea of a republic. They installed an Islamic republic in Iran, but its mandate is believed to be divinely inspired and not subject to the approval of civil society. Islamists from all schools of thought, and violent jihadists in particular, have an ideology of their own, based on ideas diametrically opposed to classical liberal democracies. The jihadists aim at the re-creation of what they perceive as a caliphate, merging dozens of Muslim countries into one world power. They want to impose strict religious laws on the people of the caliphate and claim furthermore that this form of government is ordained by God. Hence they have no tolerance for man-made legislation, and politics is tightly scripted by the militant interpreters of faith. The followers of Jihadism, openly or discreetly, as well as those who share the Islamists' enemies, have moved worldwide to obstruct the rise of secular democracies, especially within the realm of the Muslim world. They plan to resume what they believe is a millennial project: world domination.

Makes negotiating toward some peaceful resolution tough when your opponent believes that his position is "God-approved" and that your position is the work of the devil. Not much in the way of middle ground there.

Jihadist Threats to "Tankers"

Jihadi target?

Shiptalk and a number of other maritime security sites have noted a reported threat by unspecified jihadist groups to attack "martime targets" or "oil tankers" somewhere along the tanker paths from the "Arabian Peninsula" to the "Horn of Africa." See, e.g. "Targeting Tankers, Targeting Tankers, Tanker Threat. The link to the source of this report is not present on any of those sites,but I believe it to be SITEIntel, a subscription based jihadist monitoring company. My belief is based, entirely, on a Google search that led me to this summary from a subscription based site:

news.siteintelgroup.com/.../1102-jihadist-calls-for-attacks-on-oil-tankers-...
6 days ago – A jihadist called for attacks on oil tankers, particularly those in waters around the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, and gave ...

While I am fascinated by the report, I don't have enough couch change to pump for the fees required to look into it.

Damaged tanker Limburg

What I do know is that such threats have been around for some time and that various al Qaeda or other groups have attacked ships in the past: USS Cole on October 12, 2000; the tanker Limburg on October 6, 2002; the tanker M-Star on 27 July 2010; and the thwarted attack on a cruise ship off Turkey in 2005. Then there are the Philippine ferry attacks and the handiwork of the now silent (but not dead yet) Sri Lankan LTTE terrorists.

USS Cole damage

Such threats have long been blogged about on this site, including this 2007 post, "Al Qaeda's Maritime Threat" an essay by Akiva Lorenz of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, this 2008 post Al Qaeda Calling for Chokepoint Terrorism.

There have also been a number of news reports raising this issue over the years.

In short, there is a threat.

There has long been a threat.

Maritime security remains important.

This is going to make the Jihadists really, really mad - oh, wait...

Lying on my couch, heard Rush Limbaugh mention this American Thinker: Jihadism, Liberalism and Perversion:

Only Islamic clerics sanction the murder of women who have been raped. Only Islamic clerics issue murderous fatwas, celebrate murder of artists, and mobilize sword-wielding men to demand death for a female teacher who allowed children to name a teddy bear 'Mohammed'. Only Islam proudly exhibits videos of throat-cutters torturing helpless victims.

It is the intense pleasure derived from religiously sanctioned murderous lust that makes the jihadis so dangerous. The degree of narcissism matters little; these are not people who can be 'treated' by shoring up their narcissism, and bolstering their self esteem. It is our very civilized, therapeutic culture that makes us flinch from taking the necessary measures needed to deal with such foes. In truth, it may be our own narcissism -- the need to reassure ourselves of our superior civilized nature -- that causes us to obsess about whether necessary measures for waging war, like water boarding, and Guantanamo constitute 'torture'.

Some people are going to be really angry if they can read this.

On the other hand, what's he got to say about the Salem "witch" trials?

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex Counties of colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused who were not formally pursued by the authorities. The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of witchcraft. Nineteen of the accused, fourteen women and five men, were hanged. One man, refusing to enter a plea, was ordered to be crushed to death under heavy stones. At least five more of the accused died in prison.

Except, of course, that we seem to have made some progress in Massachusetts since 1692, whereas the Jihadists...

UPDATE: Of course, as if to prove the point.