I will put in a link to Thomas Friedman's column, but the real story on this was somewhere else. 2 days ago it snowed in Saudi Arabia. You would think a cleric would find that reason to thank God for providing some water in the desert to melt and filter down to the aquifer.
Instead, the cleric said anyone who built a snowman would be deemed an infidel and punished in some way. Frosty apparently is only a symbol of heathens.
Now I will note this is a Saudi Wahhabi cleric, not an Indonesian or Malaysian or even a Shia cleric. I'm not sure, but I don't believe the Ayatollah has banned snowmen in the mountains of Iran, where it definitely snows every year. If only Iran were not anti-Israel and want a nuclear bomb, they might be a worthy ally.
So, just remember, there are basically 4 causes for Jihadism. (i) Autocratic governments and poor education and poor economic development. (ii) Failure of Israel to find a way to establish a State of Palestine. (iii) The tremendous wealth of Wahhabi Saudi Arabia supported by the U.S. military and foreign policy. (iv) Rich people in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates who think sponsoring Jihadism is a positive.
That's a lot to overcome, requires Arab governments to work on ending Jihadism and will take a long time. Meanwhile, the fight to contain Jihadism requires a lot of NSA and CIA type work. Something the pro-Snowden and anti-NSA crowd doesn't understand.
Link to Thomas Freidman column
The Saud royal family has been in bed with the Wahhabis for decades as you know. All the more reason to get off of Middle East oil. All the more reason to build Keystone........
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2004 and Hamas promptly turned it into a staging base for attacks. Concrete for construction projects in Gaza? That went to build tunnels into Israel from which to launch terror attacks. Palestinians could have a homeland in four seconds if they simply recognized Israel's right to exist. It is much easier, however, to play the victim.
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