Zbigniew Brzezinski Quotes
Terrorism cannot be isolated from its political, historical, and even social context.
Brzezinski, Zbigniew. The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership. Basic Books, 2004.
A Fatwa is an Islamic theological legal ruling. Islam has no hierarchy. So this Fatwa is not necessarily binding on any Muslims who do not wish to be bound by it. This is one of the relatively few Islamic theological organizations who have taken a public stand against terrorism.
While that tended to be so at that time, it has not always been so. For example, the civil war in Sri Lanka where suicide bombing vests were developed pitted Sinhalese Buddhists against Tamil Hindus. The 10 percent Muslim population were the only ones who were peaceful. And the PKK in Turkey—although a Muslim terrorist movement operated in a very strong and modern state.
Both Islamic terrorists and anti-terrorist Muslims believe that they are following the world of God. Which group is the “hijacker” can be argued either way which is why the “hijack” notion turns out not to be very useful, However, despite intense pockets and even countries where the terrorist view of Islam is in the majority, the majority of Muslims in the world reject the terrorist interpretation of Islam. The difficulty lies on supporting the anti-terrorist Muslims and fighting the Islamic Terrorists without offending the former by conflating all Muslims together.
Essentially, he is advocating a reformation of the Islamic religion, much like that which has taken place in Christianity and Judaism. However, while most Muslims of the world are not extreme fundamentalists, most of the existing clerics (as did their Christian and Jewish counterparts years ago) turn any attempt at reform into blasphemy and sin. Throughout much of the Islamic world, Muslims who argue publicly for reform are at risk for their lives as the existing Muslim clerics generally encourage attacks on reforms or turn a blind eye to efforts to suppress reform.
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981. As a scholar, Brzezinski belonged to the realist school of international relations, standing in the geopolitical tradition of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas J. Spykman. Brzezinski was the primary organizer of The Trilateral Commission.
