In the name of participatory democracy, President George W. Bush's Arab reform policies are actively enfranchising radical Islamist parties with armed militias in Iraq, where they form the government in Lebanon, where Hezbollah now holds government ministries and now, potentially, in Palestine,
Quotes about islamist (11 Quotes)
The driving force behind today's terrorist threat is Islamist fundamentalism. The struggle we are engaged in is, at root, ideological. During the last century a strain of Islamist thinking has developed which, like other totalitarianisms, such as Nazi-ism and Communism, offers its followers a form of redemption through violence.
In Islamist jurisprudence you warn enemies before you attack them. It is typical behavior.
The enemy is not just terrorism. It is the threat posed specifically by Islamist terrorism, by Bin Ladin and others who draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within a minority strain of Islam that does not distinguish politics from religion, and distorts both.
Describing the Internet statement from the Islamist militant group as disgusting propaganda, ... We have no reports of any deaths.
I think policy now is being reassessed in terms of what kind of position the United States could take not only to support the opponents of the Islamist groups, but also what to do if those Islamist groups in fact win.
So for instance a few weeks before the Madrid bombing they put out a strategy explaining why they thought that Spain was a weak link in the coalition in Iraq, why it was crucial to get America out of Iraq ... for the sake of future radical Islamist expansion.
The key to tackling Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism from the Islamist community is in the hands of moderate Muslims.
President Bush has made some statements suggesting the US would accept whatever democratic outcome comes. Should the US be willing to do that, it suggests a major change in their position. But I think it is a little premature to assume that any real decision has been made. I think what they -- in the US administration -- are hoping for is a more gradual reform process in the Arab world, a more gradual expansion of political participation which Islamist groups do not use as an opportunity to come to power. So while I think there has been a shift in the US Middle East policy we will all have to wait to see how great that shift has been.
The present obsession with a single ideological source of terrorism -- Islamist extremism -- is contributing to a dangerous disregard of other and rising dangers.
The new generation of Islamist militants realized long ago that Al-Qaeda is no match for the United States and its allies. But the militants clearly have an edge in the propaganda battle, a crucial component of the 'war on terror'.