Time to sit back for me and try to get a better understanding as to exactly what is the end goal of all this Islam based terrorism throughout the world.
I fear that there will be no end to it until we are all under Sharia law. Not to say that it will happen, but can there be any other scenario that would cause the terrorists to declare an end to hostilities everywhere in the world? As long as America snubs its nose to Sharia law and upholds civil rights for everyone including eventually gays, won’t America be the #1 enemy of the Islamic terrorist.
I can tell you what I think the answer is but if you want to know what his goal is you’ll have to ask him.
IMVHO there will be no end. OBL doesn’t seem to be a laissez faire type so merely getting the US out of Islam’s holy lands won’t be enough to suit him.
Perhaps a distinction should be drawn between the things that Usama et al would like to see happen, and the unifying causes that are cited by them to rally people to the cause.
That is, radical Islamists might like to see a world where Islam is the dominant religion. Though they don’t necessarily want everyone to be a Muslim, they wouldn’t want anyone “denying God” eg polytheists.
There are two unifying causes that are apparently cited by Usama as their current goals; their short-term strategy, if you will. These are two extremely popular notions amongst Islamists and therefore serve as a terrific advertisement amongst this group. These are:
removal of US troops from Saudi Arabia (They find non-Muslim troops on the site of Islam’s holiest areas, Makkah and al-Madinah, highly offensive. Perhaps a parallel might be the way a Muslim occupation of the Temple Mount would be viewed by many Jews.)
the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state (Similarly, they see this as a conquest of lands that have been Muslim-controlled since the time of the Prophet).
Note the difference between short-term and long-term goals. It’s the difference between wanting there to be no opposition to Allah at all anywhere (long-term) and wanting there to be no physical ‘conquest’ of what they regard as their own. Hope this helps to answer your question…
Frankly, I don’t really buy this. I think the intent of Al Qaeda and such organizations is not to attack the US because “they hate our freedoms,” as GWB likes to say, but to basically roll back US influence in the Middle East so that Israel is destroyed and Muslim countries can be cleansed of those who have “collaborated” with Americans.
So, if the US announced an unconditional surrender, withdrew from all it interests in the Middle East, from support of Israel to buying ME oil, and basically renounced interventionist foreign policies in favor of strict isolationism, I’m willing to bet the number of groups dedicated to attacking the US would dwindle. Of course, all that is never going to happen.
If anyone can provide a cite to UBL or his associates talking about turning the US into an Islamic state or being outraged about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, lead me to it. I’m dying to know if there is any hard evidence of this “they hate our freedoms” view.
OP:Not to say that it will happen, but can there be any other scenario that would cause the terrorists to declare an end to hostilities everywhere in the world?
In addition to Ravenman and lambchops’ excellent points, I’d note that Islamist-extremist terrorists don’t really constitute a single monolithic entity. Various groups have different specific political/military goals, and they haven’t all signed the same grand ideological pledge or anything like that.
IMO, no terrorist group of any persuasion will ever “declare an end to hostilities everywhere in the world”. Even if the happy day comes when we can actually eliminate terrorism entirely, it will come about through law enforcement thwarting terrorist attacks and disrupting their organizations, as well as changing attitudes on the part of former terrorism supporters. It won’t be the result of violent militants declaring a universal cessation of hostilities because their goals have been achieved.