Stormrider,
Militant Islam is not the action of a few nutcases. Every religion has those.
Militant Islam is a well-organized and very well funded (thank you, Saudi Arabia) political movement. The political movement is totalitarian, puritanical, Wahabbi, and is devoted to 'purifying' the Umma (lands of Islam) by setting up Sharia states and killing, subjugating or expelling all infidels on Muslim ground. Militant Islam has many adherents. Over 70,000 men passed through the Al Quaeda training camps in Afghanistan alone.
The doctrines of militant Islam were behind the Taliban, caused the civil war in Algeria (130,000 dead so far), are behind the atrocious Sudan regime, and in Shia flavor are behind the mullahs who run Iran. They animate Hizbullah (which gets about $100 million a year from Iran), Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, as well as Al Quaeda. They also (judging by the press and protests) have a significant minority of sympathisers among the general population.
In short, we are not talking about a few crackpots here. The vast majority of Muslims may be peaceful (I sure hope so), but we are talking about the Islamists, the followers of Militant Islam -- a small but organized and dangerous minority. |
