Counter-Terrorism Czar Defends Jihad As A Tenet Of Islam

From FOX News and Charging Elephant:

Counterterror Czar Defends Jihad as ‘Legitimate Tenet of Islam’


May 27, 2010 · Leave a Comment

FOXNews.com



Sounds to me that this loser might have got the phrase “terrorism is a tactic” from Lt. Col Allen West. In any event it is absolute definitive proof of the political correct thinking in this administration and why all of them must be deployed to Afghanistan to see if their terms have meaning?



The words Jihad, Islamic Jihadists, Islamists and Jihad can’t be used because they are “legitimate tenants of Islam” Is this guy on to something? Nah, perhaps we should call them the smelly rag heads that plan to rape and kill your daughter and granddaughter. This entire administration should be deep sixed and used to plug the golf coast oil spill. They will not be missed. Rational thoughts while observing useless idiots on parade, I’m. J.C.





White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan speaks to reporters in the White House Jan. 7.



The president’s top counterterrorism adviser on Wednesday called jihad a “legitimate tenet of Islam,” arguing that the term “jihadists” should not be used to describe America’s enemies.



During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Brennan described violent extremists as victims of “political, economic and social forces,” but said that those plotting attacks on the United States should not be described in “religious terms.”









He repeated the administration argument that the enemy is not “terrorism,” because terrorism is a “tactic,” and not terror, because terror is a “state of mind” – though Brennan’s title, deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, includes the word “terrorism” in it. But then Brennan said that the word “jihad” should not be applied either.





“Nor do we describe our enemy as ‘jihadists’ or ‘Islamists’ because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children,” Brennan said.



The technical, broadest definition of jihad is a “struggle” in the name of Islam and the term does not connote “holy war” for all Muslims. However, jihad frequently connotes images of military combat or warfare, and some of the world’s most wanted terrorists including Usama bin Laden commonly use the word to call for war against the West.



Brennan defined the enemy as members of bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network and “its terrorist affiliates.”



But Brennan argued that it would be “counterproductive” for the United States to use the term, as it would “play into the false perception” that the “murderers” leading war against the West are doing so in the name of a “holy cause.”



“Moreover, describing our enemy in religious terms would lend credence to the lie propagated by Al Qaeda and its affiliates to justify terrorism — that the United States is somehow at war against Islam,” he said.



The comment comes after Brennan, in a February speech in which he described his respect for the tolerance and devotion of Middle Eastern nations, referred to Jerusalem on first reference by its Arabic name, Al-Quds.



“In all my travels the city I have come to love most is al-Quds, Jerusalem, where three great faiths come together,” Brennan said at an event co-sponsored by the White House Office of Public Engagement and the Islamic Center at New York University and the Islamic Law Students Association at NYU.