Al Qaeda’s politics are a product of the Arab world, specifically of the radical and totalitarian Wahhabi sect of Islam founded in the 18th Century in Saudi Arabia by the fanatical Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. He thought the medieval interpretations of Islam even on the backward Arabian peninsula were too liberal and lenient. His most extreme followers cannot even peacefully coexist with mainstream Sunni Muslims, let alone Shia Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, secularists, feminists, gays, or anyone else. Their global jihad is a war against the entire human race in all its diversity and plurality. Read the whole article - it is excellent. Totten also makes the case that Iraq was hardly a distraction.
One of the reasons it is important to remind everyone of this fairly basic but mostly overlooked point is that one of the reason we're finding it tough sledding to overcome this threat is we're ignoring it's source - Saudi Arabia.
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