Long Before Hamas, Roosevelt Was Calling For Jihad Using Stones And Knives

Over the years, we've seen a number of different presidents, each with his own approach to the Middle East. For example:

• Carter favored the Arabs, and even today shows a clear bias against Israel.
• George W. Bush tried to be more even-handed, and during his 8-year term never invited Arafat to the White House -- unlike his predecessor, Bill Clinton.
• Obama showed a clear bias towards the Arabs. His first trip was to address the Arab world from Cairo.

But nothing Obama said to the Arab world compares to this appeal, ostensibly by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the Arabs of West Africa:

Praise be unto the only God. In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. O ye Moslems. O ye beloved sons of the Maghreb. May the blessing of God be upon you.

This is a great day for you and us, for all the sons of Adam who love freedom. Our numbers are as the leaves on the forest tress and as the grains of sand in the sea.

Behold. We the American Holy Warriors have arrived. We have come here to fight the great Jihad of Freedom.

Why The Paris Massacre Is Likely to Recur

The following by Jonathan Spyer is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Reflections on the Murders in Paris

by Jonathan Spyer
PJ Media
January 12, 2015

http://www.meforum.org/4970/reflections-on-the-murders-in-paris

The Islamic world is currently in the midst of a great historic convulsion. This process is giving birth to political trends and movements of a murderously violent nature. These movements offer a supposed escape route from the humiliation felt at the profound societal failure of the Arab and to a slightly lesser extent the broader Muslim world.

The escape is by way of the most violent and intolerant historic trends of Islam, into a mythologized and imagined past. The route to this old-new imagined utopia is a bloody one. All who oppose or even slight it must die. The simple and brutal laws of 7^thcentury Muslim Arabia are re-applied, in their literal sense. The events of last week in Paris were a manifestation of this trend.

Tarek Fatah: Muslims Must Save Islam from Islamists

The following by Tarek Fatah is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Muslims Must Save Islam from Islamists

by Tarek Fatah
The Toronto Sun
December 16, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/4931/muslims-must-save-islam-from-islamists

Jihadists see Western-style education of the youth as a problem worth mass murdering for.

It seems there is no respite for the ordinary Muslim. Barely a day goes by when news of fresh atrocities by our coreligionists isn't in the headlines.

Most of the world's billion-plus Muslims wouldn't dream of killing in the name of Islam, but enough do to form a critical mass that has put us on a collision course with the rest of humanity.

The Sydney siege by an ISIS-inspired jihadist had barely ended when the horrific news of a Taliban massacre killing 140 children at a Pakistani school shocked the world.

It took place at an "Army Public School", inside a Pakistan cantonment on the edges of Peshawar. Many of the students who attended this elite school were the sons and daughters of Pakistan army officers.

Tarek Fatah: Time for Canada to Take on the Jihadist Agenda

The following by Tarek Fatah is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Time for Canada to Take on the Jihadist Agenda

by Tarek Fatah
The Toronto Sun
October 28, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/4873/time-to-take-on-jihadist-agenda

^{[Originally published under the title "Time to Take on Jihadist Agenda"]}

Damian Clairmont, a Calgary-based convert to Islam, was radicalized for two years before departing Canada to fight and die for ISIS in Syria. His mother has denounced the government's "cavalier attitude" toward Islamist indoctrination of Canadian youth.

At times, my fellow Canadians alarm me.

When three anonymous women allegedly have kinky sex with radio celebrity Jian Ghomeshi and are allegedly physically and/or verbally assaulted by him, the country goes into a tizzy.

However, when three anonymous Toronto girls are recruited by Islamic State to marry ISIS fighters overseas who are warring against Canada, and are subsequently rescued by our security agencies and released back into the community, Canada yawns.

While Canadians were distracted by the Ghomeshi affair, the Senate Security Committee heard from RCMP and CSIS officials about the threats we face at the hands of homegrown jihadists.

Raymond Ibrahim: Why Doesn't the Media Cover Jihadist Attacks on Middle East Christians?

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Why the Media Doesn't Cover Jihadist Attacks on Middle East Christians

by Raymond Ibrahim
The Torch
Winter 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3798/why-the-media-doesnt-cover-jihadist-attacks-on

"To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace"—Hebrews 6:6

Raymond Ibrahim

The United Nations, Western governments, media, universities, and talking heads everywhere insist that Palestinians are suffering tremendous abuses from the state of Israel. Conversely, the greatest human rights tragedy of our time—radical Muslim persecution of Christians, including in Palestinian controlled areas—is devotedly ignored.

The facts speak for themselves. Reliable estimates indicate that anywhere from 100-200 million Christians are persecuted every year; one Christian is martyred every five minutes. Approximately 85% of this persecution occurs in Muslim majority nations. In 1900, 20% of the Middle East was Christian. Today, less than 2% is.

In one week in Egypt alone, where my Christian family emigrated, the Muslim Brotherhood launched a kristallnacht—attacking, destroying, and/or torching some 82 Christian churches (some of which were built in the 5^th century, when Egypt was still a Christian-majority nation before the Islamic conquests). Al-Qaeda's black flag has been raised atop churches. Christians—including priests, women and children—have been attacked, beheaded, and killed.

Nor is such persecution of Christians limited to Egypt.

Raymond Ibrahim on When Jihad Backfires on the Arab World

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Double-Edged Sword of Jihad

by Raymond Ibrahim
Raymondibrahim.com
March 13, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3793/sword-of-jihad

Raymond Ibrahim

Islamic nations are again learning that the jihad is a volatile instrument of war that can easily backfire on those who preach it; that "holy war" is hardly limited to fighting and subjugating "infidels"—whether the West in general, Israel in particular, or the millions of non-Muslim minorities under Islam—but can also be used to fight "apostates," that is, Muslims accused of not being Islamic enough.

In an unprecedented move and following Egypt's lead, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain recently withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar, largely due to its Al Jazeera propaganda network which, since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been inciting chaos in the region.

According to a March 7 Reuters reports, "Saudi Arabia has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, in a move that could increase pressure on Qatar whose backing for the group has sparked a row with fellow Gulf monarchies…. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are fuming over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and resent the way Doha has sheltered influential cleric Yusuf Qaradawi, a critic of the Saudi authorities, and given him regular airtime on its pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera."

Dawn Perlmutter on Jihadist Gang Graffiti Coming To Western Cities

The following by Dawn Perlmutter is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Jihadist Gang Graffiti

by Dawn Perlmutter
FrontPageMagazine.com
February 25, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3763/jihadist-gang-graffiti

Dawn Perlmutter

Young Islamists and their sympathizers are tagging, stenciling, painting, vandalizing and using every genre of graffiti to spread the global jihadist message. Similar to other gangs they are using spray paint to mark their territory, demonstrate their allegiance, advertise their gang's status and power, memorialize fallen fellow gang members, praise violence and threaten their enemies. Jihadist graffiti functions as communication and recruitment and is popping up in cities around the world including: Toronto, London, Dublin, Derry, Glasgow, Augsburg, Munich, Moscow, Toulouse, Frejus, Helsinki, Rome, Crete, Jerusalem, Beirut, Salt lake City, New York City, Washington, D.C. Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland and many others. Islamist graffiti is a popular artistic form of rebellion that portrays the global jihad movement as hip and cool. It appeals to young people who do not consider graffiti vandalism but view it as artistic expression and an agency for popular resistance and change. Spray painting Islamist slogans and jihadist phrases goes beyond graffiti as protest art. Islamist graffiti is a symbolic warfare tactic, a successful stealth information strategy camouflaged as street art.

Why Is an Islamic Cleric Thanking Obama For Waging "Jihad for Allah"?

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Top Islamic Leader Calls on U.S. to Wage 'Jihad for Allah'

by Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com
January 31, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3734/qaradawi-us-jihad

Raymond Ibrahim

A video of Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi calling on the U.S. government to wage jihad for Allah in Syria, is currently making the rounds on Arabic media and Facebook, to mockery and dismay.

In the recorded speech, Qaradawi—one of the most influential Islamic clerics in the world, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, author of over 100 books on Muslim doctrine, and head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars—sarcastically thanks the U.S. for supporting the "freedom fighters" in Syria, adding that "Allah willing, your [U.S.] aid will increase."

Yusuf al-Qaradawi (c) draped in a "Free Syria" flag. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Then, while working himself up because the U.S is only providing weapons to the jihadis in Syria, as opposed to directly intervening, Qaradawi declares in frustration: "We want America to take a manly stand—a stand for Allah!"

Media Still Doesn't Get What Jihadist Murder of Lee Rigby Is All About

The following by Dawn Perlmutter is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Jihadist Murder MO

by Dawn Perlmutter
FrontPageMagazine.com
December 6, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3691/jihadist-murder

Dawn Perlmutter

The murder trial of British soldier Lee Rigby, 25, the father of one, a member of the Corps of Drums with the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusilier and a veteran of the Afghan War, is underway in London. Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are on trial charged with murdering Rigby as he walked back to Woolwich Barracks in southeast London on May 22, 2013. Adebolajo and Adebowale, both British citizens, drove a car straight at Rigby in broad daylight as he walked across the road, hitting him from behind and then repeatedly stabbing him with a meat cleaver and knives in front of a crowd of bystanders. Fusilier Rigby died of multiple stab wounds. Instead of fleeing the scene, Adebolajo gave interviews to the crowd while holding the murder weapon in his bloody hands. He wanted to make it clear that the Islamic motivation for the attack was known, he said: "We swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Adebolajo also handed a letter to one of the witnesses that read, 'To my beloved children know that to fight Allah's enemies is an obligation. …'Seek Shaheedala oh my sons so that you might be raised together." There is no dispute that the motivation for the murder was vengeance against the enemies of Islam. The two men were successfully radicalized and incited to murder by jihadist propaganda that continually asserts that their honor has been disrespected, that Muslim territory has been occupied, that Muslim holy lands must be purified of infidels and that cleansing Islam of infidel unbelievers is a function of jihad, holy war and a justification for murder.

MEQ Fall 2006: David Bukay: The Religious Foundations of Suicide Bombings

The following by David Bukay is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Religious Foundations of Suicide Bombings
Islamist Ideology

by David Bukay
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2006, pp. 27-36

Suicide terrorism has been the scourge of the last quarter century. A suicide bomb attack on the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut compelled Ronald Reagan in 1983 to withdraw peacekeepers from Beirut. Palestinian leaders deploy suicide bombers to force Israeli concessions, and Iraqi insurgents use suicide bombings to derail the new political order. Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the U.S.S. Cole in Aden in 2000 and, on September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center and Pentagon. While some scholars argue there is no religious component to suicide bombing[1]—often citing Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, who are not Muslims—they are wrong. All Muslim suicide bombers justify their actions with their religion and, more specifically, with the concept of jihad.

Why Islamists Believe Jihad Is Not Terrorism

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Jihad or Terrorism?
The Semantic Arguments of Islam's Authorities

by Raymond Ibrahim
PJ Media
October 16, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3644/jihad-or-terrorism

Raymond Ibrahim

A recent Arabic article appearing in Egypt's Al Ahram newspaper titled "Is Terrorism Jihad?" written by Islamic law expert Dr. Abdul Fatah Idris offers important lessons—from the fact that jihad does involve subjugating non-Muslims to why the Western mentality is still incapable of acknowledging it.

Idris, professor and chairman of Al Azhar University's Department of Comparative Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Sharia Law, is a well-reputed legal scholar. He begins his article by quoting from various international bodies that correctly define terrorism as violence or threats of violence as a means of coercion.

Idris also mentions how "the Islamic Research Academy, in its report issued on November 4^th, 2001, defines terrorism as terrorizing innocent people and the destruction of their properties and their essential elements of living and attacking their finances and their persons and their liberties and their human dignity without right and spreading corruption throughout the land."

Dawn Perlmutter on Jihadist Ritual Murder in the Kenya Mall Attack

The following by Dawn Perlmutter is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Jihadist Ritual Murder and Mutilation at the Mall

by Dawn Perlmutter
FrontPageMagazine.com
October 1, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3623/kenya-mall-attack-jihad

Dawn Perlmutter

During the four-day siege in Kenya's Westgate shopping Mall al-Shabaab jihadists raped, tortured, beheaded, dismembered, castrated, gouged out eyes, amputated fingers and hung hostages on hooks from the roof. According to a forensic medical doctor, "They [the al-Shabaab attackers] removed eyes, ears, noses. Fingers are cut by pliers, noses ripped by pliers"… "Those are not allegations. Those are f****** truths,"… "They removed balls, eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood. They drive knives inside a child's body. Actually, if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers." There were also reports that hostages were beheaded and their heads thrown out of the windows.

Book On Muslim Terrorist Symbols Seeks To Be "Source of Inspiration for Graphic Designers"

The following by Dawn Perlmutter is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Branding Terror:
The Logotypes and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations

by Artur Beifuss and Francesco Trivini Bellini
Merrell Publishers, 2013. 336 pp. $34.95

Reviewed by Dawn Perlmutter

FrontPageMagazine.com
July 3, 2013

Branding Terror, The Logotypes and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations is a new book that claims to present an objective analysis of terrorist symbols. The authors, Odessa-born German Artur Beifuss, a former United Nations counter-terrorism analyst, and Italian professional graphic designer Francesco Trivini Bellini, produced a beautiful but biased reference guide for members of the intelligence and law enforcement communities. Merrell, the book's publishing company, specializes in art, fashion and gardening books, which should be the first clue that the information in this counter terrorism reference guide is problematic. The book's 60 beautifully illustrated emblems, accompanied by a symbolic analysis and description of each group's ideology, have a decidedly anti-American, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian liberal bias that only serves to perpetuate the propaganda issued by the very terrorist organizations that are included in the book.

Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2013: Islam's Hatred of the Non-Muslim

The following by David Bukay is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Islam's Hatred of the Non-Muslim

by David Bukay
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2013, pp. 11-20 (view PDF)

It is accepted as a truism by many liberals and multiculturalists and touted by much of the Western media that the "clash of civilizations" between the West and the Islamic world is a clash of values between a secular, tolerant, post-Christian world and a minority (albeit a large one) of Muslims, fundamentalists, and literalists who pervert the meaning of their faith-traditions. The Qur'anic verse, "There is no compulsion in religion,"[1] is frequently invoked to prove that Islam is not the intolerant, subjugating religion that Islamist clerics like Yusuf Qaradawi or terrorists like Osama bin Laden make it out to be. The belief is that "Islam," as former president George W. Bush said not long after the 9-11 attacks, "is peace."[2]

But what if Bush's statement, along with the mainstream view, ignores the reality of Islam's central tenets? Are the Islamists' beliefs really only a warped minority position or are they a truer reflection of the inherent nature of the Muslim faith-system? Can the West ever reach a modus vivendi with an Islam that by its very nature considers Western civilization an unclean "other" that must be brought into the orbit of Islam through subjugation at best or destruction at worst?

From MEQ 2003: Must Innocents Die? The Islamic Debate over Suicide Attacks

The Following by Haim Malka is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Must Innocents Die?
The Islamic Debate over Suicide Attacks

by Haim Malka
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2003, pp. 19-28

Over the last two years, the issue of suicide attacks or "martyrdom operations" against Israel has dominated public discussion throughout the Arab world. Since the outbreak of the current Palestinianintifada, in September 2000, the Palestinian resort to suicide attacks has won widespread Arab public acceptance as a legitimate form of resistance against Israeli occupation. Some Muslim clerics and other commentators justify them on political, moral, and religious grounds. Even those attackers who bomb and kill women and children are hailed as martyrs for their heroism in confronting the enemy.

It is often said that the "martyrdom operations" are acts of religious extremism. The operatives who recruit young men and women to detonate themselves in crowds of Israelis manipulate religious fervor by wedding the ideas of heavenly reward to martyrdom. A young believer who detonates himself in the midst of the enemy will ascend straight to heaven and enter paradise—so he or she is indoctrinated. This is presented as the ultimate sacrifice and reward for a devout young Muslim.

But the operations themselves are very carefully calculated maneuvers.

Make Room for Islamistgate: The Obama Administration's New Scandal

Barry Rubin suggests it is time to Make Room for Islamistgate: The Obama Administration's New Scandal:

Up to now the Obama Administration has faced three big scandals—the IRS, the bugging of AP and Fox, and Benghazi. And now here is scandal Number 4:

For the last four years the Obama Administration has conducted a major “outreach” program to Islamic groups in the United States and in the Middle East. Patrick Poole has been investigating this project and in a comprehensive article now presents the full scoop and scope of what’s been going on. His article, "Blind to Terror: The U.S. Government’s Disastrous Muslim Outreach Efforts and the Impact on U.S. Policy" in the new, Summer, issue of MERIA Journal is a gamechanger

You may think that you know about this subject but it goes far beyond what you have heard about. The majority of groups and individuals promoted by the Obama Administration have been radical Islamists, particularly Muslim Brotherhood cadre, and more than occasionally people involved in terrorist activity.

The Obama administration has been cozying up to radical Islamists for years at the expense of moderate Muslims, increasing the influence of the more fanatical elements. The result has been cases where the White House and FBI end up working with Islamists even as those same people are simultaneously being investigated for being involved in terrorism.

These radical Muslims are treated as moderates, allowing them to be provided privileged information and permitted to advise and influence US policy.

Patrick Poole presents a comprehensive analysis of Obama's “outreach” program and examines flaws which have endangered American lives.

Mohamed Majid -- Moderate Muslim
who assured his congregants he was not helping the FBI fight terrorism.

Here is a portion of Patrick Poole’s article:

"When President Obama hosted his annual Iftar dinner in August 2010 to commemorate the Muslim celebration of Ramadan, the list of invitees published by the White House was curiously missing the names of several attendees – all of whom were top leaders of organizations known to be purveyors of jihadist ideology and implicated by federal prosecutors in financing terrorism.

“But it wasn’t like they had crashed the party. In fact, one of the individuals missing on the official White House list, Mohamed Majid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), was pictured in a news service photograph sitting at the front table just a few feet from the president as he spoke When Majid was hailed by Time Magazine in November 2005 as a “moderate Muslim cleric” that was helping the FBI fight terrorists, he quickly published an open letter to his congregation on the mosque’s website assuring his congregants that he was doing no such thing stating that his relationship with the FBI was a one-way street only to communicate Muslim community concerns – not to report on individuals suspected of terrorist activity.

“It was just a few years ago the Attorney General of the United States was canceling Muslim outreach events for the sole reason that Majid would be present at the meeting, because the Department of Justice had just named ISNA as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in American history.

“But Majid’s connection to terrorism goes back even farther than that, since the offices of the mosque he leads, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center, were raided by U.S. Customs authorities in March 2002 in a wide-sweeping terror finance investigation. In an affidavit requesting a search warrant for the raids, Customs Agent David Kane testified that Majid’s mosque was being used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for the targeted terror finance network that shared offices with ADAMS. An appendix to the Customs Service affidavit also names eleven ADAMS Center officials as targets of their terror finance investigation.And yet Majid and the ADAMS Center are still considered legitimate outreach partners by the FBI.

“This was just the most recent episode in the disastrous attempts at outreach to the Muslim community since the 9/11 attacks. And with the release in 2011 of President Obama’s strategic plan to combat “violent extremism” to expand outreach to these same terror-tied groups, the present administration seems intent on compounding the disaster wrought by previous administrations."

The results of this investigation should be a serious embarrassment for the Obama Administration and should be distributed as widely as possible. It involves the expenditure of millions of dollars of taxpayer money and the promotion of the forces most dangerous to American interests and to the American people in the world today.

Read the whole thing.



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How The Obama Administration Aids The Spread of Al Qaeda Cells

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Calm Before the Jihadi Storm

by Raymond Ibrahim
The Blaze
May 23, 2013

http://www.meforum.org/3518/jihadi-storm

On this Memorial Day, it's important to remember that the very same U.S. policies that created al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 1980s—leading to the horrific attacks of 9/11—are today allowing al-Qaeda to metastasize all around the Muslim world. As in the 80s, these new terrorist cells are quietly gathering strength now, and are sure to deliver future terror strikes that will make 9/11 seem like child's play.

To understand this dire prediction, we must first examine the United States' history of empowering Islamic jihadis—only to be attacked by those same jihadis many years later—and the chronic shortsightedness of American policymakers, whose policies are based on their brief tenure, not America's long-term wellbeing.

Why Do We Accept The Excuse of Revenge For Islamist Terrorist Attacks?

If we in the West wish to stand in the way of this malevolent terror, we must first understand its vision, its true nature, and its goals. Only then can it be conquered. Sadly, at present, we are not even on the same battlefield.
Yair Shamir

Yair Shamir, Israel's Minister of Agriculture, writes in an article for Foreign Policy about Our Shared Islamist Enemy.

Shamir writes about the failure to focus on the ideology of Islamic terrorists and the implications behind their attacks:

Daniel Pipes from July 2008: Which Has More Islamist Terrorism, Europe or America?

The following by Daniel Pipes is reposted here with permission:

Which Has More Islamist Terrorism, Europe or America?

by Daniel Pipes
Jerusalem Post
July 3, 2008

"Since 9/11, there have been over 2,300 arrests connected to Islamist terrorism in Europe in contrast to about 60 in the United States." Thus writes Marc Sageman in his influential new book, Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century (University of Pennsylvania Press).

This one statistical comparison inspires Sageman, in a chapter he calls "The Atlantic Divide," to draw sweeping conclusions about the superior circumstances of American Muslims. "The rate of arrests on terrorism charges per capita among Muslims is six times higher in Europe than in the United States." The reason for this discrepancy, he argues, "lies in the differences in the extent to which these respective Muslim communities are radicalized." He praises "American cultural exceptionalism," admonishes European governments "to avoid committing mistakes that risk the loss of good will in the Muslim community," and urges Europeans to learn from Americans.

Sageman's argument rehashes what Spencer Ackerman wrote in a New Republic cover story of late 2005, when he found that "Europe's growing Muslim culture of alienation, marginalization, and jihad isn't taking root" in the United States.

Syrian Government Calls For Jihad In Defense Of Assad Regime

The following by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Jihad in Syria, Part II
The Assad Regime Perspective

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Syria Comment
March 25, 2013

http://www.meforum.org/3480/jihad-in-syria-part-ii

In my previous article I examined the question of how jihadists in Syria conceive of their jihad against the Assad regime. But how does the regime portray jihad?

Earlier this month, many observers were surprised by a statement issued by the Supreme Iftaa Council, whose leader is Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, the most senior Sunni cleric in Syria as Grand Mufti, with strong ties to the regime. The council's fatwa was a call for jihad to defend Assad's government.