The endless production of false hopes about Islam

Yesterday I criticized Powerline for its pollyannish idea that the denunciation of Zarqawi by his relatives following his terrorist attack in Jordan shows that Muslims are turning away from terrorism, that “things are going our way,” and that we shall win in Iraq, if we just stay the course. Taking a similar tack to Powerline, Walid Phares writes at FrontPage Magazine that the massive demonstrations in Jordan against Zarqawi show that Muslims are turning against terrorism. Phares neglects to mention one little problem with his thesis: Muslims don’t demonstrate against terrorism when Israelis and Americans are killed by terrorists. Obviously, all that the demonstrators are saying is that they don’t want to be targeted themselves. As Zawarahi counseled Zarqawi in his famous letter (summed up by Phares): “Don’t kill Shi’ites randomly; don’t kill innocent Muslims; don’t deviate from infidel targets (Americans and Jews).” So, to avoid the anger of his fellow Muslims in the future, Zarqawi must simply refrain from slaughtering regular Muslims who are not collaborators of the United States and Israel. Yet Phares and Powerline naïvely see Muslims’ outrage against Zarqawi as a sign that the U.S. is winning the war against Muslim terrorism!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 21, 2005 12:51 PM | Send