Project White Horse Forum

From Ed Beakley

In light of religion’s impact on the 21^st Century, consider the following upcoming special by Christiane Amanpour on CNN and article in the same context by Dr. Walid Phares, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies  ****************************************************************************************  CNN Presents: God’s Warriors

  Jewish Warriors August 21  Muslim Warriors August 22 Christian Warriors August 23 9PM EDT By Christiane Amanpour http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.warriors/  ********************************************************************************************************** Military Jihad in Modern Times is Illegal 
By Dr Walid Phares   Senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, D.C Director of the Future Terrorism Project of the FDD  Visiting fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels. His most recent book is Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West. 

World Defense Review
August 01, 2007  The argument that the Muslims have “sensitivities” regarding the issue of historical jihad, which therefore cannot be criticized or maligned, is at odds with the current structure of international relations and laws. 

As long as a world consensus exists on the nonreligious nature of international relations, the political and legal dimensions of the historical jihad cannot be played out in the international or public policy affairs of modern society.  One cannot argue, for example, that jihad is the equivalent of self-defense in the modern international system. Self-defense doesn’t relate to any theological concept. But if self-defense in Islamic religious law covers oral insults to Islamic values, then Muslim governments or a future caliph could declare wars of “self-defense” based on mere statements made by individuals and groups (thus, the Danish cartoons would have justified jihad against Denmark in the name of “self-defense”). Similarly, if to some Christian sects self-defense could be linked to an “end-time” theology, or if future religious groups through self-defense could be a response to a divine order to reshape humanity by force, these interpretations could lead to a collapse of the planetary order. In sum, the basis of twenty-first-century peace is to abandon the racial, religious, and cultural legitimization of wars. International society, with its various nations and cultures, including the Muslim ones, has agreed on this since 1945, at least in principle.

Read the Article

http://www.defenddemocracy.org//in_the_media/in_the_media_show.htm?doc_id=512471