I’ve read where we need to be careful about not getting other Muslim countries involved (on Afghanistan’s side). I also recall hearing the same before the Gulf War, especially after the Israeli* attacks.
Are the Islamic nations really that united?
How come we never hear Indonesia entering a fray (having by far the largest Muslim population).
How come they never declared a holy war while Muslims in Bosnia were getting slaughtered?
*Unrelated question: Why are they Israelis and not Israelites?
They are no more united than the Arab people. The Pan-Arab movement has essentially gone nowhere. Egypt and Syria attempted a form of confederacy back in the 60’s, but regional differences crept in.
There are different sects of Islam just as there are different sects of Christianaty. There are several hundred, maybe a billion Muslims in the world, and the number of fanatics are comparable to that in christianity. Turkey is mostly Muslim, but they live very western lives. Look at the women in Saudi Arabia. Compare them to how the women dress in Western Africa, or Turkey.
Most of them have no more desire to have a holy war any more then we want to renew the crusades.
The Israelites are the guys who followed Moses out of Egypt back in the day. The Israelis are the citizens of the Israeli state cxreated after the Second World War.
The figure I’ve heard several times this week is 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide; 6 (sometimes 7) million in the US. No idea where they’re getting those figures from.
Peter Jennings misidentified Malaysia as the country with the largest Muslim population.
– Beruang
Another thing to remember is that the vast majority of the Moslem world does not embrace the “Islamist” (as Osama Bil Laden’s people are known) interpretation of Islam, do believe his suicide bombers are condemning themselves and have no desire to trundle on back to the seventh century with him.
That is part of why Bin Laden and the Taliban (not a good band name) feel they must overthrow several governments of Moslem countries. It is not difficult to imagine that the Saudis, Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan et al will not mind seeing the BL & T (:p) get dusted. Iran doesn’t even get along with them very well.
This is a war against terrorism and not against Islam. Afghanistan and Bin Laden are both trying to make it seem like it’s a religous war calling for a jihad when it is not.
Bin Laden himself wants to overthrow the Saudi government. Since Islam does not embrace terrorism I wonder if it’s possible for some cleric or mullah to “excommunicate” him.
These countries have a very hard time getting along with each other, but like many other relationships, when one is attacked the others tend to rally around. One thing that they all do agree on is that they don’t like Israel. We support Israel so if we look like we’re taking advantage of one of the arab countries the others are probably going to take that country’s side. Iran doesn’t get along with them because the people in Iran are of Persian descent and not Arabian. Same with Indonesia, they are not connected in anyway except the religious tie.